A critical third game will be played between Australia and South Africa in the One Day International (ODI) Cricket tournament on October 26 after the latter came out strong and overcame a struggling Aussie team by 80 runs yesterday.

The South African Proteas national team, which lost the first game by 93 runs, registered an awesome score of 303 for six and went on to win the game denying Australia an outright sweep of the series, the BBC News reported.

The visitors could not keep up with the home team as one of its top players failed to start because of a hip injury.

Shane Watson could not start the game and David Warner did not get any support from the rest of the team.

Proteas was not affected by the loss of team captain Hashim Amla with other members of a the team combining for a balanced offensive to stop the Australians.

Australia has a remarkable history in the sport of Cricket. The Australian team was undefeated in 34 successive matches until early this year when Pakistan outclassed Australia by just 4 wickets in the 2011 Cricket World Cup.

It has played a total of 752 ODI matches winning 464 and losing only 256 and appeared in 4 uninterrupted finals appearances which exceeded the 3 consecutive by West Indies.

Australia played 39 Twenty20 and made it to the finals of the ICC World Twenty20 before eventually losing to England.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported that the Australians are still observing the condition of Watson who has been weighed down with back contractions going into the final match.