Hauritz earns Ponting plaudits

Nathan Hauritz's four scalps could help establish him as Australia's frontline spinner

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Australia captain Ricky Ponting was full of praise for his bowlers after they dismissed South Africa for just 145 in the first one-day international in Durban.

Nathan Hauritz was the star man for the visitors, snaring a career-best 4-29 as Australia completed a 141-run victory at Kingsmead.

Mitchell Johnson and James Hopes (both 2-24) also chipped in as the home side fell well short of Australia’s score of 286 for seven, which was built around Michael Hussey’s unbeaten 83.

It was a good turnaround for Australia, who managed to end a three-game losing streak following defeat in the third Test and back-to-back Twenty20 losses to the Proteas.

“I thought it was a good performance,” Ponting said afterwards. “I thought that we just maybe made an over-par score on that wicket.

“The ground here is so small and so fast, so it was going to be a competitive score. But the guys obviously bowled exceptionally well.

“I thought Hauritz was terrific tonight, Hopes was very, very good and Mitchell was good as well.

“It was great reward for Hauritz coming back to take four wickets in his first game back in a long time. That was great reward for what he’s put in over the past six or seven weeks.”

In the end the victory margin was the biggest ever by an Australian side against South Africa in the 50-over game.

And Ponting was also grateful to Hussey for his half-century that rescued the tourists from 115 for four – especially after a tough period for the Western Australia batsman, who has struggled for runs.

“It has been a difficult few months for him. It was great to see him get those runs on the board tonight.

“I thought when he went out to bat, it was very crucial stage for us. We needed some partnerships, which we got and let’s hope he can keep it up for the remainder of the summer.”

Graeme Smith urged South Africa to be cannier in the batting powerplay overs

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The two sides will now shift focus to the match two of the five-game series that takes place in Pretoria on Sunday.

Ponting added: “It’s always enjoyable when you win and put on a performance like that. But obviously we’ve only got one day turnaround now till the next game, so hopefully we can carry tonight into Sunday.”

South Africa captain Graeme Smith was bitterly disappointed with his side’s performance, pointing a finger at the lack of proper planning towards the end of the Australia innings.

“It was always going to be difficult. I think the teams are pretty close, but we didn’t play well enough today. I think Australia were pretty much better than us in all departments and they deserved the victory.

“I think the powerplay makes it difficult. It means that you’ve got to be very profound with the things you want to do. I think the bowlers have to be confident and need to be assured of the things they want to do in the last 10 and I think we weren’t that today.

“We leaked pretty much all around the ground and our plans, we never quite committed to them. So to go for close to 100 in the last 10 overs is disappointing.

“I think 280 was 30 runs too many on this wicket. It got slower and slower as the way went on and Australia were more precise and we never really tested them with our batting.”