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Quinton de Kock’s century in vain as Australia register two wicket win over South Africa

Australia also became the no.1 ODI team in the World owing to this 4-1 series victory.

Quinton de Kock remained the highest scorer of the match with 107 but ended up on the losing note unfortunately © Getty Images
Quinton de Kock remained the highest scorer of the match with 107 but ended up on the losing note unfortunately © Getty Images

Nov 23, 2014

Australia continued their impressive form at home as they defeated South Africa by two wickets in the fifth and final ODI of the series at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) on Sunday. Shane Watson remained the highest scorer for Australia scoring 82 runs off 93 balls. Earlier South Africa batting first had set a target of 2981 for the Aussies, however due to rain interruption the target was revised to 275 in 48 overs. Australia also became the no.1 ODI team in the World owing to this 4-1 series victory.

The day started on a surprising note when during the toss, it was Hashim Amla who came out to lead the South African team instead of regular skipper, AB de Villiers. Winning the toss and electing to bat first, South Africa made a couple of changes to the squad from their previous game loss at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). Rilee Rossouw was in for de Villiers while Morne Morkel made his way in for speed gun, Dale Steyn. Australia skipper, George Bailey however made  just a change in the form of Josh Hazlewood coming in for Nathan Coulter-Nilewho pulled his hamstring in the last game.

South African openers, Amla and De Kock were initially shaky for the first few few overs, but settled down immediately scoring 51 runs in the mandatory powerplay phase of the first 10 overs without losing any wicket. However, at the score of 54, it was Amla to depart first after falling to Glenn Maxwell being caught behind by wicketkeeper, Mathew Wade.

Following his dismissal, it was Rossouw who joined de Kock and put up a commanding 107 run partnership. Russouw also scored his maiden half-century before falling for 51 off Pat Cummins at the score of 161. Faf du Plessis next departed soon for mere two and David Miller was also dismissed after scoring five runs. They were dismissed by Cummins and Smith respectively. However, in the meantime, de Kock didn’t panic as he brought up his sixth ODI century off 117 balls. Incidently, he also became the first South African batsman to score a century in the ODIs at the SCG. South Africa was also quick enough to take the batting powerplay between overs 30 and 35 where they scored 22 runs and lost the two wickets of du Plessis and Miller.

Following the century and the powerplay, de Kock couldn’t last long and was dismissed for 107 at the score of 206 by Cummins. His score read 107 off 123 balls with a strike-rate of 86.99 including 14 boundaries. Following his dismissal, South Africa had lost half of their batting team and Farhaan Behardien along with Wayne Parnell took control for the next total phase of the innings as Behardien brought up his second half-century of his career. Both the batsmen went for the big shots and finally ended up putting a commanding total of 281 on the board, Behardien being dismissed on the third-last ball.

Australia began the chase in an impressive manner with opener David Warner going off to a flying start scoring a quickfire 21 of 16 balls before getting dismissed by Parnell. Following his dismissal, it was all-rounder Shane Watson who made his way to the crease and put up a much needed 100-run partnership along with opener, Aaron Finch. Finch also brought up his 5th ODI half-century but was dismissed just after the 100-run partnership off Robin Peterson for 76.

It was Watson then who went for the kill along with centurion from previous match, Steven Smith. He eventually brought up his 31st half century and was well on the course of a century, but couldn’t hold on till the end and ended up getting dismissed off a short ball from Morne Morkel for 82, falling short of his ton by 18 runs. Maxwell, who followed Watson was dismissed for cheap seven off Morkel again.

Meanwhile Smith too brought up his half-century and was looking to finish things off along with skipper George Bailey, but was dismissed for 67 off Peterson at the score of 264. Out came wicketkeeper-batsman, Mathew Wade but soon again it was Bailey who had to walk back at the same stage after scoring just four. Next down was powerful hitter, James Faulkner but soon again it was Wade who walked back after adding three more to the total and soon followed was next down, Pat Cummins as well, as situation became tensed on the field and South Africa were quite back in the game.

However, it was Faulkner who finished things off in the final over hitting a sweeping boundary off Peterson to earn the victory and send Australia to the top of the ICC ODI Team Rankings, displacing India to no. 2. de Kock also received the man of the match award for his brilliant hundred.

Brief scores:

South Africa 280 for 6 in 50 overs (Quinton de Kock 107, Farhaan Behardien 63; Pat Cummins 3 for 54) lost to Australia 268 for 8 in 46.2 overs (Shane Watson 82, Aaron Finch 76, Robin Peterson 4 for 32) by 2 wickets.

Full Scorecard

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