Australia shone with bat and ball to beat South Africa by three wickets to claim a 2-1 series victory after the third One-Day International (ODI) at Kingsmead Friday. The visiting bowlers, led by paceman Mitchell Johnson with two for 37 and spinner Xavier Doherty with two for 33, restricted the hosts to 222 for six. Australia's top seven batsmen all reached double figures as they then totalled 227 for seven with 15 balls to spare. Opening batsman Shane Watson top-scored with an aggressive 49 off 46 deliveries while Michael Hussey showed his experience to steer his team home with an unbeaten 45. JP Duminy took two for 29 for South Africa while fellow spinner Johan Botha was particularly miserly as he returned figures of one for 21 in 10 overs. “Tonight's another strong indication we're working our backsides off to try and get better every day and we're playing well as a team,” Australia captain Michael Clarke told reporters. Earlier, the home side won the toss and elected to bat on a slow pitch which made strokeplay difficult. Hashim Amla (52) and Jacques Kallis (54) were the mainstays for South Africa. Clarke hits back at Katich Australian captain Michael Clarke has denied playing any part in the axing of Simon Katich and warned the former opener his outspoken comments were not doing him any favors. Katich has blamed Clarke for his surprise dropping from Cricket Australia's contract list in June and said he doubted he would play for his country again as long as he was skipper. But Clarke said the door had not been shut on anyone. “Look, when Simon wasn't selected I wasn't a selector at the time,” Clarke told Australian media.
