Under-fire all-rounder Andrew Symonds gave Australia a decisive edge over South Africa with three wickets on the third day of the second cricket Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Wednesday.
Symonds, whose position in the team is under threat after a poor run of scores, hit back with a 16-ball spell of 3-7 with his medium-pacers to have the Proteas trailing by 44 runs in the first innings.
The South Africans lost eight wickets for 142 to be all out just before tea for 311 in reply to Australia’s 355, to hand the home side a crucial lead in a tight Test match.
Symonds jumped about with delight as he removed Mark Boucher (23), Herschelle Gibbs (94) and Shaun Pollock (9) in the middle session.
He finished with 3-50 off 20 overs, but speedster Brett Lee was also outstanding with his ferocious bowling to capture 3-92.
Symonds trapped Boucher leg before wicket and bowled Gibbs off his glove just six short of his 15th Test century before getting another lbw decision on Pollock.
Gibbs toiled away for 347 minutes and faced 234 balls with 15 boundaries before he was cruelly denied his hundred, and received a standing ovation as he left the field.
Lee, bowling with restrained fury, claimed two big breakthroughs before lunch with the wickets of Jacques Kallis and Perth Test hero Jacques Rudolph.
Kallis fell to a brilliant piece of fast bowling by Lee on the same score in the 70th over of the innings.
Lee rattled Kallis when he thudded a short-pitched ball into his helmet and followed up with a screaming yorker that destroyed his middle stump next ball.
Ricky Ponting immediately brought Shane Warne into the attack to join fellow leg-spinner Stuart MacGill, and he claimed the wicket of Ashwell Prince for the third time in the series for six.
Prince used his feet but was caught by Ponting in a reflex bat-pad catch at silly point four overs later to leave the tourists 192 for four.
Skipper Ponting took the second new ball in the 85th over 10 minutes before lunch and Lee got through Rudolph’s defences, bowling him with the first ball of his new spell for 13.
Rudolph batted for over seven hours for an unconquered 102 to save South Africa from defeat in last week’s first Test.
Warne claimed the wicket of Nicky Boje, bowled for 12, and MacGill wrapped up the innings with Andre Nel lofting a catch to Mike Hussey for 14. – Sapa-AFP