ADELAIDE, Dec 16: Australia leg-spinner Shane Warne ran through the South Africa lower order Sunday to leave the first Test of the world championship series delicately poised.

Warne took five for 113 as Steve Waugh’s team finished 65 in front on the first innings after dismissing the visitors for 374 late in the day.

Batting a second time, the Australians added three without loss after surviving three hostile overs.

The big worry for South Africa, though, was the state of the Adelaide Oval pitch which was showing signs of breaking up and it was no surprise that Warne was the pick of the Australian bowlers.

The leg-spinner mopped up the South African tail to move past Pakistan’s Wasim Akram into fourth place on the list of Test match wicket takers with 418 victims.

Middle order batsmen Neil McKenzie top scored for South Africa with 87 after two let-offs while opener Herschelle Gibbs (78) and wicket-keeper Mark Boucher (64) also scored half-centuries.

McKenzie and Boucher shared in a vital 141-run partnership for the seventh wicket after South Africa had slumped to 214 for six after starting the day at 101 for two.

McKenzie, whose father Kevin played for an unofficial South African side during the 1980s, cracked 16 boundaries during his 168-ball innings before he played back to a ball from part-timer Damien Martyn that struck him on the pads.

South Africa had looked like taking the first innings lead while McKenzie and Boucher were in full flow but McKenzie’s departure triggered a late collapse and the final four wickets tumbled for just 19 runs.

Warne was the main beneficiary, collecting the last three scalps to become the first wrist spinner since Richie Benaud 40 years ago to claim five wickets in an innings in a Test at Adelaide.

Paceman Glenn McGrath added another wicket to his two from the previous night when he got Jacques Kallis lbw for five with a toe-crushing yorker but failed to add to his total while Australia’s other two frontline quicks, Brett Lee and Jason Gillespie, did not take a wicket between them.

The Australians briefly threatened to run through the South African batting order when they dismissed nightwatchman Claude Henderson (30), Gibbs, Kallis and Lance Klusener (22) to reduce the visitors to 214 for six shortly after lunch.

Gibbs had been a model of concentration during his 4-1/2 hour innings, adding 36 to his overnight score of 42, when he threw his wicket away, dancing down the pitch to Warne and being stumped by Adam Gilchrist.

His wicket seemed a vital blow at the time but McKenzie and Boucher guided the Proteas safely past the follow-on point of 240 then launched a full-blooded assault on the Australian bowlers.

They took the total to 265 for six by tea but raised the tempo in the final session, piling on 73 runs by the time drinks were called for the last time.

Scoreboard

AUSTRALIA (1st Innings) 439 (D.R. Martyn 124, J.L. Langer 116, R.T. Ponting 54; C.J. Henderson 4-116).