David Warner's excellent 173 could not stop South Africa from winning the fifth One-Day International by 31 runs in Cape Town and thereby completing a 5-0 whitewash against Australia. After opting to bat first, South Africa yet again cut the inexperienced bowling attack of Steve Smith's side to ribbons. Rilee Rossouw (122 from 118) capped off an excellent series by scoring a fluent ton to help his side to 327/8. Warner's pyrotechnics got Australia to 296 in reply.

Australia needed one big partnership to keep their hopes alive. The second highest score after Warner was 35, which was scored by Travis Head and Mitchell Marsh. For the Proteas, the 178-run stand between Rossouw and JP Duminy (73), which came at more than a run-a-ball, proved to be the difference in yet another high-scoring encounter between the two teams.

For the first time in the series, the South Africans were under a spot of bother. Rookie Australian pacer Joe Mennie landed a couple of telling blows early on to reduce the hosts to 52/3 after 11 overs. Rossouw, who only got into the side because of AB de Villiers's long-term injury, was prolific yet again. This time, the southpaw got to his century after missing out on two other occasions in the series and walked away with the Man of the Series award too.

Australia had to record the highest-ever ODI score at Newlands to avoid the ignominy of a whitewash, a feat that was bread and butter for the world champions in the past. This was a series where many records have been rewritten and the Australians got off to a solid, if not spectacular, start through Warner and Aaron Finch.

Quite astonishingly subdued, Finch laboured to a 40-ball 19 before Imran Tahir put him out of his misery. Smith played all over a quicker delivery from the South African leg-spinner. George Bailey also did not last long and in the space of 16 balls, the Aussies had lost three wickets for just two runs.

Warner and Mitchell Marsh built a 62-run stand for the fourth wicket but South Africa's wicket spree had dented the scoring rate. Tahir was excellent as usual, bamboozling the Australian batsmen, who were hurrying their shots.

Warner fought a lone battle towards the end, running hard to keep strike and bravely taking the attack to the South African pace battery. Tahir's accurate throw from the deep ended one of the best one-day knocks in recent times as Warner took off for an improbable second run. Australian hopes ended there.

Brief scores:

South Africa 327/8 in 50 overs (Rilee Rossouw 122, JP Duminy 73; Joe Mennie 3/49, Joe Tremain 3/64) beat Australia 296 in 48.2 overs (David Warner 173, Travis Head 35; Imran Tahir 2/42, Kyle Abbott 2/48) by 31 runs.