Published: Mar 08, 2016, 03:22 PM (IST)
Edited: Mar 08, 2016, 04:07 PM (IST)
Australia face South Africa in an ultimate series decider of their three-match Twenty20 International (T20I) series at Cape Town on Wednesday. After the last-ball finish that went Australia’s way in the second T20I, the visitors are surely charged up, keeping the loss in the opening match at Durban off their mind. South Africa posted a mammoth total of 204 in the first innings with Faf du Plessis leading the charge with 79 off 41. He was supported by the likes of Quinton de Kock and David Miller who scored 44 and 33 respectively. Despite Dale Steyn and Kasigo Rabada reducing the Australia to 32 for 3, Australia found their match-winners once again in David Warner and Glenn Maxwell. FULL CRICKET SCORECARD: South Africa vs Australia, 3rd T20I at Cape Town
Warner who is the regular opener for Australia across formats was sent two down in the Johannesburg match and that experiment clicked for the Australia. Warner along with Maxwell went on to post a record fourth wicket partnership of 161 runs off 79 balls and that turned out to be the turning point of the match. South Africans would have expected to cross the line comfortably until these two began to smash every bowler ruthlessly across the park. While Warner hit five sixes and six boundaries, Maxwell had three sixes and seven fours in his account. However, the hosts were back into the game when Rabada dismissed Warner on the first delivery of the final over, when Australia still needed 11 runs.
The duo of Mitchell Marsh and James Faulkner held their nerves and ensured Australia remained alive in the three-match T20I series. In the opening match at Durban, it was Aaron Finch and Marsh who scored majority of runs. Warner did begin well but David Wiese did not let him explode for a long time. The worry at the moment for the visitors is the bad patch skipper Steven Smith and Usman Khawaja’s are going through. Smith has scores of 6 and 19 from first two games, while Khawaja was dropped after scoring a single digit in the Durban match. However, his replacement Shane Watson also failed as he scored 9 off 15 balls.
Meanwhile, South Africa has been dominant with the bat due to du Plessis and Miller’s good form. The duo has managed to counter-attack the Australian attack comfortably and have been the major reason for South Africa’s runs in both the matches so far. AB de Villiers, who recently has promoted himself to open the innings hoping for some positive result, has failed miserably so far with scores of a duck and 13 in the first two T20Is. READ: David Warner breaks into top 10 of ICC T20I rankings
The bowling department of the Proteas will once again revolve around the spells from Rabada. The youngster picked up two important wickets in the previous match when he dismissed Finch and Warner. The second dismissal almost won the match for the hosts, but Marsh and Faulkner had different plans. Dale Styen, who made a comeback after an injury on the other hand, continued to trouble the experienced players of the Australian side. His breakthroughs saw Smith and Watson walk back to the pavilion. South Africa would have been content watching their spearhead not losing his good touch inspite being out of action for a long time.
With the both the teams high spirited, charged up and desperate to enter the upcoming ICC World T20 2016 with a win, the series decider in Cape Town will be nothing but a thriller.
Squads:
Australia: Steven Smith (c), David Warner, Aaron Finch, Peter Nevill (wk), Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Usman Khawaja, James Faulkner, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood, Andrew Tye, Shane Watson, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Ashton Agar, John Hastings
South Africa: Faf du Plessis (c), Kyle Abbott, Hashim Amla, Farhaan Behardien,Quinton de Kock, (wk), AB de Villiers, Jean-Paul Duminy, Imran Tahir, David Miller, Chris Morris, Aaron Phangiso, Kagiso Rabada, Rilee Rossouw, Dale Steyn, David Wiese
TIME: (21:30 IST | 16:00 GMT | 18:00 local)
(Sakshi Gupta, a reporter with CricketCountry, is a sports fanatic whose mantra in life is “do only what you enjoy.” Her Twitter handle is @sakshi2929)
