Key events
South Africa win by 67 runs
WICKET! Zampa c Breetzke b Maharaj 7, Australia all out 230
WICKET! Ellis b Bosch 4, Australia 230-9
WICKET! Starc c Jansen b Bosch 16, Australia 221-8
WICKET! Renshaw c Jansen b Coetzee 44, Australia 215-7
WICKET! Edwards c Jansen b Maharaj 5, Australia 188-6
WICKET! Green c Breetzke b Maharaj, Australia 176-5
WICKET! Connolly c Miller b Fortuin 38, Australia 156-4
WICKET! Inglis c Jansen b Fortuin 3, Australia 134-3
WICKET! Head c Miller b Jansen 36, Australia 129-2
WICKET! Marsh c Breetzke b Maharaj 60, Australia 90-1
Half century! Marsh 54 from 31 balls
South Africa set Australia 298-run target
WICKET! Coetzee run out (Inglis) 6 (South Africa 296-8)
WICKET! Jansen lbw b Ellis 75 (South Africa 289-7)
WICKET! Breetzke run out (Inglis) 112 (South Africa 275-6)
CENTURY! Breetzke reaches 100
WICKET! Miller c & b Ellis 10 (South Africa 168-5)
WICKET! Rickelton c Renshaw b Zampa 27 (South Africa 125-4)
WICKET! Bavuma c Inglis b Zampa 30 (South Africa 83-3)
WICKET! De Kock c Inglis b Ellis 14 (South Africa 29-2)
WICKET! De Zorzi c Renshaw b Hazlewood 0 (South Africa 6-1)
South Africa XI
Australia XI
Toss
Preamble
Geoff Lemon
So that’s the early lead to the South Africans, with two matches to play. A serious comeback, especially with the ball. Game two is on Sunday, and we’ll be with you again then.
Temba Bavuma is more cheery. “I think all around it was a good fight from the batters and the bowlers, looking at how both innings started in the first innings, we were under pressure.”
Mitch Marsh looks like he’s just rolled in at 10am after an all-nighter. Fairly blank stare. “Pretty disappointed,” he says, before saying that the other lot were better. “Marco Jansen was hard to bowl to, especially with that short boundary, so credit where credit’s due.”
This is about as annoyed as I can remember seeing him, though. “I sound like a broken record,” he says, while lamenting that they haven’t been building partnerships.
“I’ve been batting four for the last year, so I’m used to that position,” says player of the match Matthew Breetzke, who used to open for South Africa.
South Africa win by 67 runs
The home team looked in trouble when Mitchell Marsh was galloping across the prairie with bursts of steam coming from his nostrils, but we did say that one-day cricket offers enough space for stories to change. South Africa’s spinners managed to hold up the charge enough, and then Australia from well on top botched the job through the middle. Some very poor shot selection opened the door back up, and in the end left too much for Renshaw to do despite his good recent form.
WICKET! Zampa c Breetzke b Maharaj 7, Australia all out 230
No more blocking for Zampa, who aims a big sweep shot at Maharaj, into the air towards square leg. Breetzke has a lot of ground to make up running in, but does so, and takes the sliding, sprawling, rolling catch. Fitting to cap off an excellent fielding performance from the South Africans across the board, and a third catch for him to go with his century.
WICKET! Ellis b Bosch 4, Australia 230-9
41st over: Australia 230-9 (Zampa 7) Bosch to Ellis, who glides a high-risk single off his middle stump, backing away. Zampa tries a hearty drive but finds the field. So he leans away and flat-bats the next one off a length, for four. Then pulls a single. But that’s as far as this partnership will go. Back of a length, outside off, Ellis pulls off the bottom edge into his furniture.
40th over: Australia 224-8 (Ellis 3, Zampa 2) The team talk must have had a slide on surviving Maharaj. Zampa blocks out a maiden in Maharaj’s ninth.
39th over: Australia 224-8 (Ellis 3, Zampa 2) Now it’s Ellis and Zampa knocking singles. With 70-odd to get, they would still be ever so slightly in the game if they still had the overs in hand soaked up in the Renshaw-Starc period.
WICKET! Starc c Jansen b Bosch 16, Australia 221-8
That’s definitely the game, if it wasn’t when Renshaw went. Starc was the last player who might have had a lash and battered a few dozen. Has to give that a shot, so he tries to flat-bat Bosch a long away, and that distance ends in the hands of long on.
38th over: Australia 220-7 (Starc 16, Ellis 2) Another over of spin down, this from Fortuin. Ellis plays carefully and finds a single. Starc has a go at one, but it’s saved on the midwicket rope. Only four from the over. Tick, tock.
37th over: Australia 216-7 (Starc 13, Ellis 1) Now it’s just hit and hope for Starc and Ellis. They’re both handy with the bat, but they’ll need to have a go at a few with 82 further runs needed.
WICKET! Renshaw c Jansen b Coetzee 44, Australia 215-7
Renshaw was awake, but Marco Jansen has put his innings to sleep! First ball of the over, Renshaw rifles Coetzee down the ground for four. Second ball, on the pads, Renshaw gets plenty of it, flicked over midwicket. Jansen comes loping around in the deep, from a squarer starting position. Sees the ball dipping towards the rope. Dives and slides across. Gets one long arm out, plucks the ball from mid-air, and then has he goes to ground, manages to tilt those Nightmare Before Christmas fingers up towards the sky so that the ball doesn’t scrape the ground as he comes in to land. A stunning catch. Probably a match-defining one as well.
36th over: Australia 211-6 (Renshaw 40, Starc 13) Finally, some scoring resumes. Starc edges a couple of runs, then gets off strike. Renshaw tries to take Fortuin downtown, lifting him over mid off, but Rickelton sprinting back is able to slap the ball back into play as it’s bouncing over the rope. Saves two runs. Renshaw keeps strike, six from the over, and perhaps has woken up.
35th over: Australia 205-6 (Renshaw 37, Starc 10) Coetzee now, to Renshaw, who drives nicely but Fortuin at cover stops it. Once, then again. Three more dots. Two runs from the last 21 balls! Another dot, defended. Another, off the inside edge and it starts rolling back towards the stumps. Coetzee finishes the over with a fast yorker, around the wicket at the lefty, angling in. Blocked. Maiden!
Two runs in 24 balls. What has happened here? Australia need 93 from 90.
34th over: Australia 205-6 (Renshaw 37, Starc 10) Bavuma has decided to keep two Maharaj overs in his back pocket. Fortuin is back, two wickets for him already. And again, the Aussies go nowhere! One from the over, and now the equation is above a run a ball. There’s balance, but they’re letting this drift a lot. Two runs from 18 balls? What’s the plan? Do they have bowlers who they think the runs will come from?
33rd over: Australia 204-6 (Renshaw 36, Starc 10) Now Jansen keeps tightening the equation! Renshaw is waiting for a bad ball but doesn’t get one. Has to settle for a single from the fourth of the over. Starc decides not to risk anything from the two remaining. One run from the last 12 balls!
32nd over: Australia 203-6 (Renshaw 35, Starc 10) Maharaj repairs some of the damage with a maiden to Starc. He only has two overs to go, so the Australians are presumably happy to see him off. That includes an absolute jaffa, a ball that rags from outside the lefty’s off stump, into him, clips his back pad and goes just over the off bail.
Target is 95 from 108.
31st over: Australia 203-6 (Renshaw 35, Starc 10) Whack! Mitchell Starc has presumably reasoned that he’s unlikely to see out 20 overs, so he might as well try to win the match faster than that. He slaps a pull shot for four, Jansen standing the ball up for that shot through wide long on. Then Jansen oversteps, and from the free hit, Starc is able to lean away from the ball at his body, getting enough leverage to drag it through midwicket to the rope. He turns over the strike, then the South Africans deliver yet another leg-stump gift, and Renshaw tickles it for four!
That’s 14 from the over, and 95 more needed from 114 balls.
30th over: Australia 189-6 (Renshaw 28, Starc 1) Australia needs 109 from 120 balls now. Manageable run rate but the six wickets lose are what matters.
WICKET! Edwards c Jansen b Maharaj 5, Australia 188-6
Lovely bowling! Bowling to an inexperienced player, as well, perhaps takes less guile. Maharaj just bowls the classic left-armer’s delivery. A nice bit of flight and dip to draw Edwards onto the front foot. Not close enough to the pitch of the ball though, leaving it room to turn away. And crucially, South Africa still have a slip in place, they like to leave Jansen there given his extraordinary reach. That positivity in the field has brought about the wicket. A low edge just carries to Jansen, and now Renshaw’s job has got that much tougher.
29th over: Australia 185-5 (Renshaw 28, Edwards 5) Bosch owes his spinners a wealth of thanks. Their work to tighten up the innings is allowing him to do some repair work on his figures. Edwards takes four balls to find a single.
28th over: Australia 182-5 (Renshaw 26, Edwards 4) Back after the delay, and Maharaj tightens the screws a little more with a two-run over.
27th over: Australia 180-5 (Renshaw 25, Edwards 3) Bosch gets the chance for a quiet over. Edwards looks solid with his shots for a couple of singles. Needs to bat for a substantial length of time here, at least 15 overs on debut. There’s a delay now because the lights haven’t taken effect yet, as we get deeper into the afternoon on an overcast day.
26th over: Australia 177-5 (Renshaw 24, Edwards 1) Some shocking decision-making by some of the Australians today. They don’t need sixes, haven’t done since Mitch Marsh’s opening assault, but two key batters have fallen trying to hit them.
Australia need 121 from 144 balls. Now that’s quite a lot of work for Renshaw to do with a guy on debut and the bowlers.
WICKET! Green c Breetzke b Maharaj, Australia 176-5
Again, what the hell was that? Renshaw is going along nicely, needing support. Spin has been the main threat today, and Maharaj is the premier spinner. Green has only faced 10 balls, and there are fielders in the deep. The ball is not that short. And still, a 6-foot-73 batter decides to try to get low and to pull that ball over the leg side for six. Stupid shot, pure and simple. Caught at long on.
25th over: Australia 176-4 (Renshaw 24, Green 5) Bosch is having an absolute shocker. Another spell, two more pies outside the leg stump, and Renshaw pops them both in the oven to heat up for his enjoyment. Consecutive fours through fine leg.
24th over: Australia 165-4 (Renshaw 16, Green 3) That’s quality from Renshaw. He keeps the scoreboard going with a lovely cover drive. So much less visible effort than Connolly’s drives, for a much more convincing effect. Seven runs from Fortuin’s over.
23rd over: Australia 158-4 (Renshaw 11, Green 1) Coetzee hasn’t had a great day, but takes advantage of the situation to get through a two-run over. Every little bit of tightening up helps.
Australia need 140 from 162 balls.
WICKET! Connolly c Miller b Fortuin 38, Australia 156-4
22nd over: Australia 156-4 (Renshaw 10) What made him decide to do that?! Connolly has had a shocker. Fortuin, left-arm over the wicket, bowls wide of the off stump, and Connolly for some reason looks to go over long on. Having to fetch the ball robs his shot of power, and it goes up rather than long. David Miller, that is a brilliant catch. Not spectacular, because he anticipates so well and sprints so fast to get there, but he has a huge distance to cover, and judges it so well that he arrives ahead of the ball instead of having to dive. It doesn’t need to be spectacular because the lead-up work was so good.
Fortuin having a big influence. A wicket with the last ball of his over again. South Africa are currently on top of this contest.
21st over: Australia 152-3 (Connolly 37, Renshaw 7) Pace keeps travelling. Coetzee to Renshaw, who plays a perfect flick off his front pad, the bat just arriving where the ball is arrowing in, and barely a follow-through as the ball speeds through square. Elegant.
