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'Genius' Philander too good for Aussies

Johannesburg - As Morne Morkel bowed out of international cricket and South Africa made history, Vernon Philander's heroics at the Wanderers on Tuesday were somewhat overshadowed. 

The 32-year-old was at his devastating best, ripping through the Australian batting order by taking six wickets in 33 balls as the Proteas won the fourth and final Test on the fifth morning. 

In total, it took South Africa 82 minutes to take the last seven wickets they needed to complete their 421-run win and that was all down to Philander, who finished with figures of 6/21. 

He has bowled with incredible accuracy all series long without being fully rewarded in the wickets column, but that reward came in a big way on Tuesday. 

In the process, Philander became just the seventh South African to take 200 Test wickets while he now also joins Trevor Goddard and Allan Donald on 53 wickets against Australia. 

"That was amazing that Vernon did that," man-of-the-series Kagiso Rabada said after the Test match.

"I’ve seen him do it a lot of times, we all have, and today was another exhibition that he has shown us.

"He’s a genius at what he does. He keeps it so simple and he willingly does what he wants with the ball … that’ the reason why the commentators have been calling him the 'surgeon.'"

Stand-in Australian captain Tim Paine agreed.

"Vernon bowled well and he got the ball in the right area enough. We’ve seen all game if you did it for long enough there was always something there," he said.

"He bowled really well and was too good for us."

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