South Africa's bowlers have a suffocation plan in place that has helped them to dismiss Australian opener Matthew Hayden in the Sydney cricket Test.

Hayden is almost certainly playing his last Test after scratching his way to 31 in almost three hours of painstaking batting at the SCG.

South African bowling coach Vinnie Barnes revealed the Proteas bowlers had a plan to frustrate the struggling opener into playing rash shots.

South Africa has bowled wide of the wicket to Hayden and deployed a barrage of off-side fielders, including short covers, to frustrate the 37-year-old.

"We are trying to just block the runs and it's working," Barnes said, adding "We have put fielders in positions that we felt were the areas he was looking to score."

Hayden never looked like the batting bruiser of old as he eked out his runs off 78 deliveries yesterday, finally dragging a Dale Steyn delivery on to his stumps to end the agony.

Simon Katich, who opened the batting with Hayden, insists that Hayden is simply trying to spend time in the middle to bust through his batting doldrums.

Hayden's wife, Kellie said: "Matthew's way is to give his best every time. Nothing changes there."

Hayden has amassed 8555 Test runs at an average of over 50, and his 30 Test centuries have been surpassed by only two Australians, Ricky Ponting and Steve Waugh.

But he has struggled for runs since an achilles injury sent him home from the West Indies in 2008. (ANI) yahoo india