South Africa has brought Australia back to earth with a thud and provided much-needed spice to the tri-series with a five-wicket upset.

The Proteas celebrated their first win over the world champions this summer when Mark Boucher and Justin Kemp saw them to a testing target of 229 with seven balls to spare.

The pair combined for an unbeaten 69-run stand but were almost denied the honour of hitting the official winning runs when a surprise shower stopped the match with 10 balls to play.

Very few of the record Gabba crowd of 39,874, earlier buoyed by a record 123-run rearguard union by Mike Hussey and Brett Lee, stayed on to see Kemp (29) cover drive Nathan Bracken to the boundary.

The gripping match teetered on a razor's edge throughout the Proteas run-chase.

Wicketkeeper Boucher finished with a run-a-ball 63 after Boeta Dippenaar set the platform with a streaky 74 before falling at 5-162 with eight runs an over required.

But Kemp, battling a shoulder injury for the past month, delivered the match-turning blow when he smashed Lee into the Gabba's upper tier stand as 17 runs came from the 46th over.

SA's win was initially set up by seasoned all-rounders Shaun Pollock (3-30) and Andrew Hall (3-43) who found the Gabba's pace and bounce to their liking after Ricky Ponting's dubious decision to bat first.

Adam Gilchrist fell first ball to Pollock and Australia wobbled to 3-29 and then 6-71 before Hussey (73 off 107) and Lee (57 off 70) dragged them out of the mire.

With the Proteas looking for the kill by stationing three slips behind the bat, Hussey first stopped the rot before quickly accelerating from the 35th-over mark.

Blossoming as a lower-order batsmen, Lee, earlier sconed by a Jaques Kallis bouncer, also came to the party for his second ODI half-century.

When Lee came to the crease in the 19th over, super-sub James Hopes was padded up ready to be injected into the fray at the fall of the next wicket.

The stand meant Ponting kept Hopes in cotton wool and allowed himself the luxury of a five-man pace attack.

As it turned out likely replacement Stuart Clark belted an important 15 off 10 balls, including 14 off the penultimate over, which included two embarrassing missed catches by Kemp.

It was in stark contrast to Australia's fielding, highlighted by Hussey's diving left-handed catch to dismiss Ashwell Prince (19) and Andrew Symonds' side-on run out of Jacques Kallis (0).

However they were made to pay for a Hussey dropped catch off Dippenaar on 37.

It was another forgettable day for SA skipper Graeme Smith who mistimed a pull shot off Glenn McGrath to fall for 12.

In a worrying sign, Adam Gilchrist's recent one-day woes (with 24 runs from his last five bats) also continued when he played the first ball of the day on to his leg-stump.

Pollock followed up with the wickets of Simon Katich (0) and Damien Martyn (12) and was unlucky not to have Ricky Ponting when dropped behind on 7.

The in-form Ponting looked set to make SA pay but a bunted return off Monde Zondeki's first ball sparking a 3-11 mini-collapse.

Brought to you by AAP © 2024 AAP