Ryan Harris emerged as Australia’s saviour, securing the two needed wickets to dismiss South Africa with just 27 balls remaining on the final day five to hand the Aussies a 2-1 series victory.
Harris was brought back into the bowling attack in the final six overs as tailender Vernon Philander attempted to save South Africa in the form of a draw in Graeme Smith’s final Test match as captain.
Australia entered the final day of play in Cape Town needing six wickets after Michael Clarke’s contentious call to wait until midway through day four to declare, with the decision to try bowl the home side out with a day and half to remaining and an already insurmountable lead in hand.
The plan almost came unstuck when Vernon Philander survived 105 balls (51 runs) as the Proteas attempted to see out series in hope of a draw.
The combination of Philander, Faf du Pleiss and JP Duminy put together a 313-ball stand (141 runs) as the wickets dried up for Clarke’s overused bowlers.
The Australian captain made another arguable decision in pairing Shane Watson with Johnson in the final overs, but it wasn’t until Ryan Harris was brought back into the attack that Australia finally got the breakthrough they desperately needed.
With his first bowl after a six-over spell, Harris claimed the vital wicket of Dale Steyn with a delivery that collected the off stump. He went round the wicket two balls later to shatter the stumps and collect Morne Morkel four and a half overs out from a dreaded draw.
“That was unbelievable. I was getting very tired. Vernon Philander batted really well. We bowled really well today,” Harris said after claiming the winning wickets.
“I just wanted to come in and bowl as fast as I could. I managed to get one under Dale. He was batting well. The last one was just lucky. It’s nice to take wickets. That was proper Test match cricket. That was bloody hard.”
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The loss was a bitter pill for South African captain Graeme Smith to swallow. He batted poorly all series and fell short of leading his country to it’s first series win at home against the Aussies since re-admission in 1991.
“’I think the resilience and the courage shown was immense,” Smith said.
“We needed to find something today. They dug deep and it was a huge effort. I’m very proud.”
David Warner was awarded Man of the Match for his ridiculous series with the bat, averaging 91 over the three tests and scoring 135 and 145 in the Cape Town decider.
Harris finished with four wickets from 24.3 overs at the cost of 32 runs while Mitchell Johnson collected three (34 overs, 92 runs) and James Pattinson two (27 overs, 62 runs).
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