Wounded Ryno conjures up win

To fully appreciate the spirit and the fortitude that Ryan Harris was able to summon in that epic final over that lasted just three balls, you need to go back to the final hour of the Test's third day when it appeared his match had prematurely ended.

The pain in his right hip had escalated to the point that, even for a man whose capacity to carry pain is legend in the Australian dressing room where he likes to torment teammates by having them run their fingers over the protruding floating bone in his damaged right knee, he couldn't go on.

His captain had just taken the second new ball, his fellow bowlers were just a wicket away from finishing off the South African innings and they were desperate to wrap it up before the game ebbed into the next day.

Harris had sent down one over, but when the skipper asked him for another he had to tell him to look elsewhere as his damaged hip flexor would not allow him to run.

James Pattinson was given the ball instead, the wicket was duly captured and as the Australian openers went out to begin their second innings Harris retired to the team medical room where operation 'get him back on the park' swung into action.

Over the ensuing night and much of the next day, as Michael Clarke sweated over the timing of his declaration knowing that his new-ball bowler was no good thing to make it to the crease, Harris went through a painful series of procedures.

From massages, to dry needling, to strapping, to more massaging and finally – as Clarke called the innings closed and the bowlers eyed the four sessions and around 140 overs they had to chisel out the world's best Test team on a true but occasionally two-paced pitch – a handful of painkillers.

In between those routines, the 34-year-old had 30 millilitres of fluid drained from his knee, the one that will cease being his party trick when he enters hospital in Melbourne next Tuesday to have bone spurs protruding into his ACL and PCL joints shaved and the floating bits of detritus removed.

"At the start of the day, he was struggling to walk let alone bowl," Clarke revealed in the wake of Australia's Harris-inspired 245-run win in Cape Town that clinched his team's first away-from-home series win in almost two years.

"(And) a couple of days ago he wasn't going to be able to bowl in the second innings, so credit to (team physiotherapist) Alex Kountouris our physio, he's unbelievable, he never gets enough credit for what he does to get blokes on the park.

"If it wasn't for him I certainly wouldn't have been able to walk out and bat on that second day."

Having seen his captain battered, bruised and possibly broken (as is suspected with his right thumb) while batting against Morne Morkel, Harris knew he had to dig deep and find a way to get through the eight to 10 overs his skipper dearly hoped he would be able to deliver in their push for victory.

Or a few more if he could manage it.

He ended up getting through 24.3, in which he made the initial breakthrough and then got rid of the major stumbling block – the world's top-ranked Test batsman, AB de Villiers – with a decisive blow after the lunch break.

But it was the final 0.3 that everyone's still talking about.

"Yesterday, I didn't think I was going to bowl another over to be honest," an elated but aching Harris said after that final half an over in which he came back for a final spell and rattled the stumps of Dale Steyn and Morkel to seal a famous win (story continues below video).

Video: Aussies win a Cape Town thriller

"I thought I was done.

"I wasn't sure, I thought Michael (Clarke) would turn to me and say 'I need you to bowl two or three' (overs at the very end of the day as South Africa appeared set to salvage a draw).

"I was hoping he wasn't going to say that because I was feeling a bit sore, but when he turned to me and said 'can you give me three?' I wasn't going to say no.

"All the pain I went through last night and the night before is all worth it now."

Clarke, who admitted he had endured a tortured day in the field as a succession of South African batsmen dug in and caused him to wonder if he'd delayed his fourth day declaration too long, tried everything in a desperate final hour to break the stubborn Steyn-Vernon Philander ninth-wicket partnership.

He rotated his wearying fast bowlers with increasingly dizzying speed. He summoned up allrounder Shane Watson and broke up the seam attack with alternate overs of off-spin (Nathan Lyon) and legspin (Steve Smith).

Finally, with five overs remaining, the shadows stretched long across Newlands and his patience stretched even further as the pesky tailenders scrambled within sight of safety, Clarke was faced with two contrasting options with his final dice roll.

The series' leading wicket-taker, Mitchell Johnson, from one end and the bloke with the busted knee and the angry hip from the other. If he was capable.

"There were two choices - it was either Ryan Harris or myself and I know which way I was always going to go," Clarke said.

"I didn't know if Ryno had anything left in the tank, but I think he and Mitchell Johnson have been our two best bowlers over the past 12 months, even longer.

"I thought if we're going to get over the line, these two guys are the blokes to get us (there)."

The fact that Harris was not only able to find a way to bowl that over, but required just half of it to capture two wickets when it had taken more than 93 overs of the day to prise out four others says everything about the belief and will the current Australian team has developed during its recent renaissance.

But no matter how much success they've enjoyed, they remain fiercely competitive as was painfully obvious in the series of flashpoints that ignited during the tense final session, none more unpleasant than the stoush between Clarke and Steyn when a decision for a catch off Philander was overturned on review.

Clarke used his post-match media conference to accept culpability for the spat, although he did point out he had lost his cool when Steyn said something to one of the Australians – believed to be Pattinson, who had earlier struck Philander with a frightening if unintentional beamer.

Clarke and Steyn had to be separated by teammates as the umpires intervened, and although the pair spoke and patched up on the field the Australian captain felt the need to clear the air further after the game.

"You had two extremely passionate teams that wanted to win this Test and there were obviously a lot of words throughout the game - let's call it banter," Clarke said.

"Honestly, if anybody was out of line it was me and I apologise to the opposition player (Steyn) - a player who I have the utmost respect for, who tries to kill me every time I bat (and) who batted exceptionally well.

"I was out of line.

"Let's just say he got me at a bad time.

"We just had a decision that didn't go our way … and certainly as captain of your country you've got to be able to cop that on the chin.

"I seem to make this mistake a few times, but I jumped in after him.

"It doesn't matter what happened, what I said was something out of character and I apologise for that.

"I shouldn't have said what I said."

Clarke also confirmed that the on-field umpires raised concerns with him about the manner in which the Australian players were hurling the ball into the rough, dry areas of turf on the wicket block in the hope of sufficiently scuffing the ball to achieve reverse swing.

If the umpires had felt the practice constituted unfair play, for which there is provision in the ICC playing conditions, they could have awarded a five-run penalty and cited the offender(s) under the game's code of conduct.

While admitting it was one of a few things the umpires were "up me about" on a day that presented its share of challenges for the Australian captain, he believed that neither he nor his teammates had overstepped the line and engaged in any 'sharp practices'.

As it turned out, it was as much the magic of the medical room as it was the mysterious art of reverse swing that turned a match that seemed destined to be another frustrating last-day failure into a team – and on many levels, a personal – triumph.