Australia in South Africa, 5th ODI, 2006
| Event | Australian tour of South Africa, 2005–06 | ||||||||
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| Date | 12 March 2006 | ||||||||
| Venue | New Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg, Gauteng | ||||||||
| Umpires | Aleem Dar and Brian Jerling | ||||||||
The 5th One Day International cricket match between South Africa and Australia was played on 12 March 2006 at New Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg. The match broke many cricket records, including both the first and the second team innings score of over 400 runs. Australia won the toss and elected to bat first. They scored 434 for 4 off their 50 overs, breaking the previous record of 398–5 by Sri Lanka against Kenya in 1996. In reply, South Africa scored 438–9, winning by one wicket with one ball to spare. The match has been acclaimed as the greatest One Day International match ever played and has been referred to as the "438 match" or "438 game" in the media.
For some years, there had been an intense rivalry between Australia and South Africa in One-Day Internationals, dating from the semi-final of the 1999 Cricket World Cup, where South Africa could only tie against Australia in a match they needed to win to progress to the final. Some followers of cricket considered that to be the greatest game of all time. Earlier in the 2005–06 season, South Africa toured Australia, where they failed to reach the final of the three-team one-day series, including losing three of their four matches against Australia. They also lost the three Test series 2–0. It was also of constant irritation to the South Africans that the Australians were referring to them as "chokers".
This match was the final match of a five-match series in South Africa. South Africa won the first two matches comfortably, but Australia fought back to win the next two, making this the deciding match. Australia had to play the series without their best one-day bowler, Glenn McGrath, whose wife was suffering from cancer. The South African team also missed their best one-day bowler, Shaun Pollock, in the final match due to a back strain.
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