SA secure series win in Australia

Graeme Smith's team notched up an historic win in Melbourne

South Africa won a first Test series in Australia with a nine-wicket triumph at the MCG, becoming the first team in 16 years to beat the Aussies on home soil.

Resuming on 30-0 in search of 183, they needed 42 more overs, Graeme Smith firing 10 fours in a commanding 75.

Neil McKenzie made an unbeaten 59 and Hashim Amla (30) hit the winning runs.

South Africa can inflict a first home whitewash on Australia and move top of the world rankings by winning the final Test in Sydney, starting on Saturday.

Australian cricket's iconic Melbourne ground was full of empty seats on the final day of the second Test, but there was a sprinkling of South Africans in attendance to see their team take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series 15 overs into the afternoon session.

Inspirational skipper Smith, who became South Africa's youngest captain at the age of 22 in 2003, looked set to be there at the finish, but after recording his 24th Test fifty he succumbed to a quicker ball from spinner Nathan Hauritz.

There was a hint of rain in the air when play resumed after lunch, with the Proteas requiring just 51 further runs for victory, but it did not materialise.

McKenzie had struggled for form earlier in the series with 12 runs in three previous innings and was bowled off a no-ball when on just two by Brett Lee late on day four.

But he stepped down the pitch to launch Hauritz back over his head for six, and having survived some confident lbw appeals from Lee and Mitchell Johnson, he recorded his 16th Test fifty.

There was a stroke of good fortune about the boundary off Johnson that did it, however, Matthew Hayden fumbling a difficult low chance to his right at first slip.

By that stage only 31 were needed in any case, and less than 10 overs later it was all over, Amla clipping slow left-armer Michael Clarke through mid-wicket for two.

An emotional Smith praised his team's collective effort, but gave special mention to JP Duminy, who scored a magnificent 166 in the first innings to put South Africa into a commanding position on the third day.

"Everyone has contributed and made it count," he enthused. "Who could have said we would have batted so well at eight, nine and ten the other day, and JP's knock was an incredible achievement for such a young guy to be so composed and play the way he has.

"The belief though the team is really flowing.

"It's important to say Australia are still a quality unit and it's a real honour for us to come here and beat them. To be 2-0 up after two games is something we only dreamt of."

Fast bowler Dale Steyn, who took 10 wickets in the game and scored 76 in the first innings, was named Man of the Match.

The 25-year-old has taken 74 Test wickets this year said: "It's happened so quickly, the team has done fantastically, led by a fantastic captain."

Stalwart wicketkeeper Mark Boucher said: "We have had a lot of heartbreak in this part of the world and to even think about winning a series in Australia was always going to be tough but I believe this team will go from strength to strength now."

All-rounder Jacques Kallis was delighted to finally win in Australia on his fourth tour. "It's an unbelievable feeling," he said. "We knew to beat Australia here you need a bit of luck to go your way and play the big moments well.

"For the senior players we realised how tough a task it was and this rates with winning a World Cup, if not better. South African cricket is healthy and hopefully we can keep the side together and stay on top for a while."

The baggy greens had not lost at home since 1992-93, when they were defeated by the West Indies.

They had seemed in a commanding position during the opening match of the current series, in Perth, before a remarkable fight-back by South Africa saw the visitors chase down an unlikely second-inning target of 414.

Smith's side came from behind equally strongly at the MCG, where they ended the second day at 198-7 - nearly 200 runs behind their hosts.

But a ninth-wicket partnership of 180 between Duminy and Steyn helped turn the game around, and Steyn's five-wicket haul in the second innings reduced Australia to 247, leaving the tourists a modest victory target.

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Motorcycles Finally Go Green

By Stuart Schwartzapfel

Motorcycles are by definition efficient machines, but their Prius-like fuel economy often is accompanied by emissions that make a Hummer look clean. As regulators get wise to that fact and go after two-wheelers, the motorcycle industry is embracing alternatives ranging from battery power to hydrogen fuel cells.

The pace of development in recent years is remarkable considering motorcycle design hasn't changed much since the first Hildebrand & Wolfmuller appeared in a showroom 114 years ago. Materials have advanced alongside technology, but motorcycles are still an internal combustion engine between two wheels. Motorcycles may deliver 70 mpg or more, but they can be 10 times more polluting per mile than passenger cars. That has the United States and European Union pushing motorcycles to run cleaner and greener.

"As we look at the country's air-quality challenges, including greenhouse gas pollutants and criteria pollutants, what we've found is that every sector of the transportation area is going to be required to play their part in reaching our overall goals," says Karl Simon of the Office of Transportation and Air Quality at the Environmental Protection Agency. "So even though motorcycles and scooters may represent a smaller percentage of the pie when it comes to emissions inventory, it doesn't mean their makers shouldn't have proper incentive to be using new, greener technologies."

Startups like Zero Motorcycles and Brammo are leading the way, offering electric motorcycles you can buy today, but many major manufacturers are developing hybrid and e-motorcycles and looking ahead with hydrogen-fuel-cell bikes.

Most of the focus is on electric power because motorcycles lend themselves to electrification readily. They're smaller and lighter, so they don't need as much power, and range isn't as big an issue because they're often used around town, says Brammo founder Craig Bramsher. "Motorcycles are the perfect solution," he tells us. "Based on where the technology is today for 100 percent electrification, it lends itself to a motorcycle."

These bikes are more than mountain bikes with motors, though. Electric step-through scooters from Vectrix and Electric Vehicle Company will do 60 mph or more, while battery-powered dirt bikes from the likes of Zero Motorcycles and Quantya are winning kudos from experienced motocrossers. But battery bikes remain limited by range — even with lithium-ion batteries you're still looking at 75 miles, tops — and price tags that hover around five figures. Advocates say costs will come down as the technology improves and bigger companies like Honda, Yamaha and KTM, all off which promise electric motorcycles within two to three years, get in the game.

That isn't to say gasoline engines aren't going to be around for a long, long time. Batteries can't offer the range for long-distance riding or hardcore canyon carving, and they're still pretty freakin' heavy. But even gas-burning bikes could see the benefit of batteries. Italian scooter-maker Piaggio has unveiled a gas-electric hybrid scooter that gets 141 mpg and could be on the road next year, and Honda says it is working on a hybrid motorcycle that draws on its automotive hybrid tech to cut costs. Honda says the technology could be offered in displacements ranging from 50 to 1,000 cc and offer a 50 percent improvement in fuel efficiency.

Diesel technology isn't something you hear a lot about when it comes to motorcycles, but Hayes Diversified Technologies offers a diesel-burning version of the Kawasaki KLR that the Marines have been using for years, and companies like Gray Eagles are working on diesel cruisers capable of 80 mpg and 100 mph. Looking further ahead, some manufacturers are developing hydrogen-fuel-cell motorcycles. Suzuki is out in front with the Crosscage hydrogen concept it developed with help from Intelligent Energy, a British firm that pioneered hydrogen bikes with the ENV urban commuter. The two firms are working together to develop a commercially viable fuel-cell motorcycle that could be in showrooms within a few years.

Competitions like the TTxGP, a "green grand prix" slated for the Isle of Man, will surely help advance the technology, but commercial appeal remains the big barrier to getting alt-fuel bikes on the road in big numbers. Ty van Hooydonk of the Motorcycle Industry Council says there isn't much incentive to develop the bikes until there's a demand for them, given the investment manufacturers must make in R&D, tooling and the like. "If Americans want really green bikes then they'll have to vote with their wallets, and the big manufacturers will then respond," he says.

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Lewis Hamilton smashed down the barriers

By Kevin Garside, Chief Sports Writer

Standard bearer: Lewis Hamilton celebrates becoming the youngest Formula One world champion Photo: GETTY IMAGES

A month on from the most thrilling championship conquest in the history of four-wheeled combat we are still taking the sedatives.

Dream sequences are peppered with screams from Interlagos: "He's got Glock!" Dawn breaks over icy December mornings posing the question, did he really do that?

Hamilton has been in Formula One for two minutes. He has won and lost the world drivers' championship by a point. No one has made an impact like him. From record rookie to youngest world champion. Sporting personality? How much do you want?

McLaren have done their best to package him, to mould him into the consummate corporate brand ambassador; polite, humble, available, non-contentious. Then he gets behind the wheel and the chain comes off.

Eight laps from home in the final race of 2008 he is coasting to the title. Six laps later he is losing it. At the penultimate corner he rises out of the water like the Loch Ness monster devouring Timo Glock in one almighty lunge for the line.

This, surely, is what we want from our heroes; fearless shooters who hang everything out in the name of glory. Hamilton engaged every last drop of human capacity to reclaim a pot that was being held aloft in the Ferrari garage when Felipe Massa crossed the line.

The Brazilian was three corners into his lap of honour before news drifted across the Ferrari airwaves that Formula One had its youngest world champion.

Massa, like Roger Federer at Wimbledon, grew in defeat. While Ferrari President Luca di Montezemolo was putting his boot into a television set, Massa was paying tribute to worthy champion and adversary.

Hamilton came into the 2008 season still dealing with 2007. In his debut year he had to contend with a hormonal team-mate and a political scandal that saw McLaren expelled from the constructors' championship, yet he still led the thing until the chequered flag fell in Brazil.

A win in this season's opener at Melbourne was posted under scrutiny even sharper than the year before. It also masked a degree of personal turbulence that had either been absent or simply missed in that absurd debut season.

Nothing was missed in the second. Every twist and turn was tossed into the critical shredder. A reluctant wheel nut cost him dearly in Malaysia and a button hit out of sequence on the grid in Bahrain saw him end the race pointless. Suddenly Hamilton appeared all of his 23 years; inexperienced and vulnerable.

We were into the downward phase of the creative cycle, deconstructing the phenomenon we had built the year before. Mistakes could never be that, they had to point to some defect, some imperfection, some failing.

Victory in Monaco in the wet, universally acclaimed as one of the great drives on the waterfront, brought some respite, but a needless pit lane shunt into the back of Kimi Raikkonen in Canada unleashed the attack dogs again.

The French Grand Prix was a career nadir. The Hamilton camp was at odds with the world following the hammering he had taken in Canada. A time penalty imposed following an over eager passing move on Sebastien Vettel compounded the 10-place grid penalty he carried over from North America. Hamilton left France pointless and seemingly unravelling.

Next up Silverstone. The tension could not have been greater. Hamilton needed a big result to resurrect his championship challenge and his reputation. The evidence of his first 20-odd races, in which for the most part he had demonstrated rare brilliance, was being discounted in the light of a few schoolboy errors.

Hamilton delivered, as he always has when the heat is on. He won. His critics were in flight. They did not have much to say at the next race in Germany, where again he won emphatically, or China, where he lacerated the field while contending with the open contempt of rivals who accused him of arrogance. And then he gave us Brazil.

Hamilton took a bulldozer to the rookie template. His was the most anticipated debut in the history of the sport. There was no poodling about in a Minardi for 12 months, no year as a test driver, no midseason bow in an underpowered jalopy. He was sent immediately to the front line

His achievements are astonishing by any measure. When you add in the socio-political dimension, the case for Formula One's first black world champion to be acclaimed Britain's pre-eminent sportsman, even in Olympic year, is difficult to resist. F1 is not replete with council-estate kids from Stevenage, still less with those carrying chromosomes out of Africa.

There remains one racial stereotype still to put to bed. The first black Dr Who. Following the denouement he engineered in Brazil, worthy of any cosmic doctor, you wouldn't bet against Hamilton pulling that off, too. Would you?

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