Aussies on top after Proteas collapse

Durban: Australia moved into a commanding position after South Africa collapsed against the second new ball on the third day of the second Test against Australia at Kingsmead on Sunday.

Australia were 125 for one in their second innings at the close, an overall lead of 227, with two days to play.

Fast bowler Brett Lee took five for 69 as South Africa were bowled out for 267 shortly before tea.

Jacques Kallis made a patient 114 for South Africa but his dismissal in the second over with the new ball triggered a collapse in which the last five wickets fell for 12 runs in 34 balls.

Australian captain Ricky Ponting added an unbeaten 48 to his hundred in the first innings as his team built on a lead of 102, while Matthew Hayden made a dogged 35 not out.

South Africa were in a reasonable position midway through the day.

With Kallis playing an anchor role, they were in with a chance of matching Australia's first innings total of 369 until the second new ball was taken.

After an over from Lee, Stuart Clark struck with the first ball of the next over when Kallis was caught and bowled, the ball looping back to the bowler off a leading edge as Kallis tried to play to leg.

Lee ripped through the rest of the batting, taking four wickets for nine runs.

His third wicket, that of Mark Boucher, was his 200th in 51 Tests.

Kallis played an innings of contrasts. He started with a blaze of strokes on Saturday, reaching his half-century off 49 balls.

After his overnight partner, AB de Villiers, was out to the 12th ball of the day, Kallis went on the defensive on a pitch of uneven bounce on which run-scoring had been difficult throughout the match.

De Villiers and Kallis put on 134 for the third wicket.

Kallis played only four scoring strokes in the first hour, three singles and a pulled four off Clark, as he moved from 72 to 79.

Left-hander Ashwell Prince was more aggressive, making 33 before he was caught at square leg off Shane Warne, dancing down the pitch but mistiming an attempted hit to mid-wicket.

Kallis reached his 24th Test century and his third against Australia in the last over before lunch when he punched Warne through the covers for his 17th boundary. His second fifty took 124 balls. It was his fourth century in successive Tests at Kingsmead.

He added only 10 more runs off 49 balls after lunch before his dismissal.

Shaun Pollock was caught behind seven balls later and Mark Boucher had his leg stump sent flying when he missed a pull shot in Lee's next over.

Lee's pace was too much for tail enders Andre Nel and Makhaya Ntini as the South African innings folded. It was Lee's seventh five-wicket haul in Tests.

Hayden and Justin Langer put on 49 for the first wicket when Australia started their second innings before Langer was caught at mid-wicket off left-arm spinner Nicky Boje for 37.

Ponting, who made 103 in the first innings, was in sparkling form as he advanced to 48 off 65 balls by the close, taking his team to a position from which they could press for a series-clinching second successive win.