BRISBANE, Jan 20: Australian snapped a three-game losing streak, on the back of Damien Martyn’s third one-day century, with a 27-run victory over South Africa in their triangular series limited overs match on Sunday.

Australia, who made 241 for four batting first thanks to Martyn’s unbeaten 104, won their first points of the competition after losing their opening three matches of the series, which also includes New Zealand.

Australia captain Steve Waugh, stung by media criticism of his side, said the World Cup champions were on the way back to top form.

“We’re not used to losing three in a row and obviously a lot of other people aren’t used to us losing three in a row either because all of a sudden we couldn’t play,” Waugh said.

“You’ll find that we’re not a bad side and we’re going to come back pretty strong.

“We expect to win and we expect a fair hearing when we don’t win and play well and that’s going to happen on occasions but the main thing was that we played well today.

“It was a good performance and a really gutsy win.”

Neil McKenzie made 68 from 85 balls with five fours and one six in South Africa’s 214 all out in 48.4 overs.

Glenn McGrath (4-30) and Andrew Symonds (3-48) took seven wickets between them for Australia while Jason Gillespie (2-60) cut through South Africa’s middle order resistance with the wicket of Jacques Kallis (37), who shared a 77-run third-wicket partnership with Mackenzie.

Gillespie also dismissed Mackenzie when he tried to glide a slower ball down through the slip area and was caught behind.

All-rounder Symonds, who had Rhodes caught behind, removed wicketkeeper Mark Boucher with a spectacular caught and bowled for 10 then claimed South Africa captain Shaun Pollock caught at deep square leg for 18 at 191 for seven in the 44th over.

Andrew Bichel then bowled the hard-hitting Lance Klusener for 16 off 17 balls before McGrath, who removed openers Herschelle Gibbs (18) and Gary Kirsten (22), bowled Nicky Boje (1) and Charl Langeveldt (3) to give Australia their first win of the competition.

Earlier, Martyn and Ricky Ponting added 171 in 187 balls for the third wicket as Australia recovered from losing openers Mark Waugh (15) and Matthew Hayden (10) with only 29 runs on the board.

Steve Waugh made 22 not out in a 36-run stand with Martyn for the fifth wicket in six overs.

Australia achieved the victory despite another poor showing from leg-spinner Shane Warne, who followed his 2-65 against New Zealand on Thursday with none for 48 from 10 overs on Sunday.

The seventh match in the 12-game round-robin series is on Tuesday when Australia host South Africa in Sydney.

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AUSTRALIA