The Australian bowlers proved conclusively that they are head-and-shoulders above the South Africans. Shane Warne did what he was expected to, but the difference in this match was the way Australia outperformed South Africa in the seam-bowling department. A comparison between the top three seamers of both sides is revealing. Australia's trio (Glenn McGrath, Brett Lee, Andy Bichel) were on or outside off stump 82.7% of the time; the corresponding figure for Allan Donald, Shaun Pollock and Nantie Hayward was just 66%. McGrath led the way with an incredible 90% in the corridor, but Lee and Bichel weren't far behind.

Not surprisingly, the Australian seamers looked more likely to take wickets too. 18.4% of their deliveries were played unconvincingly – that is, the batsmen edged, played-and-missed, or played shots they were not entirely in control of. South Africa's pacers elicited uncontrolled strokes just 13.9% of the time.

The only batsmen who looked mostly at ease against this attack were Jacques Kallis and … Boeta Dippenaar. Kallis was in control almost 85% of the time, but Dippenaar certainly looked the part – the in-control factor in his 49-ball stay was an impressive 93.9%. For the third time in this series, his innings was cut short by a magnificent piece of fielding.

Kallis got almost 77% of his runs against Warne and Bichel. He scored at a run-a-ball against Bichel, but only managed a run every 4.2 balls against McGrath and Lee. The on side was his favourite run-scoring area - 64% of his runs came in the region from midwicket to fine leg.

S Rajesh is sub editor of wisden.com, India.

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