Lee and McGrath devastate Pakistan
 |  Lee and McGrath celebrate taking another Pakistan wicket |
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MELBOURNE, Australia -- Brett Lee and Glenn McGrath produced a devastating spell of fast bowling to destroy Pakistan's top-order as Australia won Friday's opening one-day final in Melbourne by 18 runs.
The pair captured three wickets each as the world champions defended a modest total of 237 by restricting the tourists to 219 for nine.
Pakistan looked to be in with a great chance after bowling the home side out in the 49th over before Lee and McGrath swung the match back Australia's way.
"We came up a little bit short with our batting but our new ball bowling was outstanding," Australia captain Ricky Ponting said.
"We're nowhere near our best yet but we still came away with a good win."
Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq responded: "I thought we bowled very well and 237 was definitely a good total to chase. We wanted to see off the new ball but we lost too many early wickets."
Lee trapped Salman Butt lbw for a duck on the second ball of the Pakistan innings and also captured the wickets of Yousuf Youhana for two and Inzamam for 51 to finish with three for 23.
McGrath took three for 34, taking his career tally past 300 one-day international wickets, as Pakistan stumbled to 27 for four.
Inzamam and Shoaib Malik (66) rebuilt the innings with a fifth-wicket stand of 91 but Pakistan's slow start caught up with them as the run-rate started to climb.
Andrew Symonds made a superb 91 to win the man-of-the-match award and Damien Martyn scored 53 to help Australia post a modest total after two separate batting collapses.
Australia dropped out-of-form opener Matthew Hayden and promoted Michael Clarke to open with Adam Gilchrist.
But Clarke, brilliant in the preliminary series, was trapped lbw by Rana Naved-ul-Hasan for nine, Gilchrist was well caught by Abdul Razzaq for 24 and Ponting was bowled by Rao Iftikhar for 11, leaving Australia in early trouble at 53 for three.
Symonds and Clarke rebuilt with a fourth-wicket partnership of 137 at nearly a run a ball but their dismissals triggered an even bigger collapse as Australia lost their last seven wickets for 47 runs.
Martyn, made 53 off 78 balls without hitting a single boundary before he was stumped by Kamran Akmal off Sahid Afridi with the total on 190.
Symonds belted seven boundaries before falling nine runs short of his century when he was caught in the covers off Razzaq, the pick of the Pakistani bowlers with three for 33.
Shahid Afridi and Naved-ul-Hasan both took two for 50 but the tourists dropped a couple of catches and had several close decisions go against them.
The teams meet again at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Sunday for the second final. If Pakistan win, a deciding match will be played at Adelaide on Tuesday.
Smith ton sees South Africa home
Captain Graeme Smith scored a maiden one-day international century as South Africa beat England by three wickets with five balls to spare in the third one-dayer in Port Elizabeth.
Smith made 105 from 131 balls and put on 107 for the fourth wicket with Herschelle Gibbs (50) as the home side chased down England's 267 for eight to level the seven-match series at 1-1.
The touring side, who opted to bat, extended the drama with three wickets for 18, including those of Smith and Gibbs, to make it 214 for six.
But, with 35 still needed off the last five overs, wicketkeeper Mark Boucher hammered 33 off 21 balls to help the South Africans home. It was only their second win in 15 one-dayers.
Seamer Matthew Hoggard, normally England's most reliable bowler, took one for 66 off nine overs.
Earlier, Vikram Solanki top-scored for England with 66 and shared half-century stands with Geraint Jones (39), Andrew Strauss (35) and Kevin Pietersen (33).
Quick bowlers Andre Nel and Makhaya Ntini both took three wickets.
The result came close to rivalling the drama of the second game, which ended in a tie when England took three wickets in the final over, including a stumping off the very last ball.
The fourth game will be staged in Cape Town on Sunday.
