B D NarayankarPerth: This was in the corners and it eventually came, for Australia is right now going under transformation period after the departure of Glenn MacGrath and Shane Warne.
The going has been tough for them as the downslide of the Aussies began when India thrashed them on their soil in the one-day series last year.
Today, in the fifth and final one-day match against South Africa played at SCG, Australia lost by 39 runs and thus losing their number one position as well. The coveated place has now gone to the Proteas.
The ODI series triumph 4-1 follows South Africa's 2-1 win in the Test series and though Australia remain the number one team in the longer version of the game, the Proteas return home with the new-found tag of being the top team in one dayers.
India remained the third-placed ODI team with 120 points while South Africans have five points more. Australia also have 125 points but were pushed to the number two slot as they were found fractionally behind the Proteas when decimal points were calculated.
Australia needed 289 runs for a win to remain the number one side but 249 was all they managed before folding in 49 overs with Michael Hussey (78) and Brad Haddin (63) making futile efforts with the bat. Earlier, Hashim Amla (97) and AB de Villiers (60) steadied South Africa with a 118-run stand and then JP Duminy (60 not out off 42 balls) provided the late burst as South Africa posted 288 for six wickets.
Australia faltered early in the chase and could not really recover from the early setbacks. The hosts needed a strong start from Shaun Marsh (5) and David Warner (22) but debutant South African Lonwabo Tsotsobe rocked the Australian boat with early double strikes and Ricky Ponting's men could never really recover from that.
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