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On-field spat eclipses Test win

OFFENDED: Dale Steyn
OFFENDED: Dale Steyn

THAT Dale Steyn played his 87th one-day international in Harare on Saturday will resonate with Australians beyond the bigger truth that he powered South Africa to a comprehensive win in the triangular series final.

Thanks to Steyn, Australia totalled a mediocre 217-9. With Faf du Plessis delivering another decisive innings, this time falling four runs short of becoming the first player to score four centuries in a one-day series. South Africa won by six wickets with 55 balls remaining.

It was as convincing a hiding as SA have yet dealt any team, and the first time they have beaten Australia in a final in 20 years of trying.

But victory was not enough for Steyn, who needed little prompting to revisit the acrimony that tainted the Newlands Test between the teams in March.

An angry exchange between Michael Clarke and Steyn during SA's second innings prompted Steyn to level his bat at the Australian captain - which had the umpires adopting poses more often seen from boxing referees.

Clarke told the press he had apologised to the South Africans for what he said, and before he returned home from Zimbabwe with a hamstring injury last Monday, he said: "I would hope Dale and I have a good enough relationship ... I think my apology at the time was well taken and respected by Dale."

But Clarke should think again. "I haven't spoken to him much since [the Newlands Test]," Steyn said on Saturday. "I don't take many things personally, but what he did say to me I did take personally.

"I know he apologised in the media and I should be playing this down, but the day he comes and shakes my hand and says, 'I really [did not] mean what I said', and behaves like the way he should, maybe then I will. But, right now, he's not here. So I'll wait until I get to Australia."

What Clarke said to Steyn is not known, but the Aussie skipper's tweets during his team's innings in the final could be taken to suggest he has doubts over the legality of South Africa's management of the ball.

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