McGrath, Warne hand series lead to Australia

Roused after a long hibernation, critics have emerged from the woodwork with abandon over recent weeks to salivate over the potential demise of Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne.

After today, they would be well advised to return to their slumbers.

For it was the two champion Australian bowlers who were the architects of a slide that saw South Africa crash to a stunning 246-run defeat in the First Test at the Adelaide Oval.

With the help of Jason Gillespie (2/23), McGrath (3/13) and Warne (3/57) devastated the Proteas as they chased an improbable 375 to take the first match of this world championship showdown. Five wickets fell in the first session, and then the remaining three after lunch, as the tourists were humbled for a second innings score of 128.

Though it offered variable bounce for McGrath and fellow paceman Gillespie - as well as fizzing turn for man of the match Warne - the pitch for the fifth and final day of this match was far from poor.

It was simply that the South African batsmen proved unable to prevent a series of calamities. Jacques Kallis (65*) was typically defiant, in an innings brimming with skill and application, but no other batsman came close to proving himself the equal of the bowlers as the match was wrapped up by 3:34pm.

Having resumed at a perilous 2/17, the South Africans began sliding ever more deeply into the abyss by as early as the first five minutes of the day.

Boeta Dippenaar (0) experienced an anxious moment in the very first over when he ducked a short delivery from McGrath that barely rose above the height of the off bail behind him. Suitably disconcerted, he responded by edging a low catch to Warne at slip just three McGrath deliveries later.

Neil McKenzie (0) was unable to outlast McGrath's initial burst either, though he was the victim of something of a dubious lbw decision from umpire Srinivas Venkatraghavan as he padded up at an off cutter.

His lack of fortune seemed, temporarily, to counter-balance itself in several fortuitous shaves for Kallis and Lance Klusener (18) as the trend of wicket-taking suffered a lull for close to an hour.

A ducking Klusener involuntarily found a way to direct a Gillespie delivery to fine leg off a bat that had been left up like a periscope; Kallis would have been run out at the non-striker's end if Warne's deflection of a Klusener straight drive had taken the ball a matter of inches to its right; and there was serial evidence of playing and missing at the leg spin of Warne as he found plenty to encourage him in footmarks outside the line of the right hander's leg stump.

The pair added a positively giddy 33 runs in a fleetingly encouraging association. But, when Gillespie parted them by finding the outside edge of Klusener's bat to send the ball flying to Warne at chest height at slip, the walls quickly came crashing in again.

Mark Boucher (0) promptly gloved a Gillespie delivery aimed at the hip to wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist. And captain Shaun Pollock (1) was another to make an exit before lunch - Ricky Ponting thrusting out a right hand, while diving across from silly point on to the line of the pitch, to intercept a defensive shot played off a combination of bat and pad at Warne.

Australia, having worn early punches in the match, was now landing killer blows.

Claude Henderson (3) fell to a catch at the wicket off Warne straight after lunch. Makhaya Ntini (4), though inspiring hearty resistance as Brett Lee (2/29) was interestingly preferred to his fellow fast bowlers for more than an hour after the break, eventually fell when a leg side full toss made contact with his boot and deflected into the stumps.

Then, after weathering a nasty sandshoe crusher that had threatened to separate most of the toes on his left foot, Nantie Hayward (12) backed away to Lee, edged to Gilchrist, and the Test was over.

It was, fittingly, a meek end to the tourists' innings.

Amid the very depths of adversity - with his team pinned like a bloodied boxer on the ropes - Kallis had still resolutely refused to throw in the towel even by then.

But the air of disaster surrounding the innings had been progressively thickening all around him. So much so that it will leave almost all of the South Africans with a major job to restore confidence ahead of next week's crucial Second Test in Melbourne.