It was Morne Morkel's last day in international cricket, but Vernon Philander stole the show. Morkel was given a guard of honour by his own teammates as South Africa prepared for the final day of a long summer, creating an air of expectation that Morkel could run in for the Proteas one final time and make an impact on Australia. As it turned out, he was barely required.

Philander struck with the first ball of the day to remove Shaun Marsh - with a thick inside edge ballooning off the pad and into the hands of Temba Bavuma running in from gully - and with the fourth to take care of the other member of the Marsh household. With Mitchell edging through to Quinton de Kock, Philander brought up his 200th Test wicket in his 54th Test.

From that point an air of inevitability descended, and Philander duly ran through Peter Handscomb, Tim Paine, Pat Cummins and Chadd Sayers as he took 6 for 3 in 32 deliveries. The final wicket took the longest to fall as Nathan Lyon and Josh Hazlewood outlasted Philander's spell. The seamer nevertheless finished with career-best figures of 6 for 21 in the innings. With the tourists losing seven wickets for 31 runs on the final morning to be dismissed for 119, they had lost their last 30 wickets in the series at an average of 13 runs apiece.

Brief score: South Africa- 488 and 344/6 decl beat Australia- 221 and 119 by 492 runs