Times Media
TELFORD VICE
SA delivered a performance at least as damp as the conditions to crash to defeat in their T20 series against Australia in Centurion last night.
Faf du Plessis’ team spluttered to a total of 128/7, which the visitors passed with six wickets standing and five overs to spare to claim the rubber 2-0.
Weeks of rain in Gauteng yielded a slower pitch that took turn. Australia came to terms with that, SA did not, and that will worry Proteas fans who bid their team farewell today as they fly to Bangladesh to play in the World T20.
If Faf du Plessis’ team can’t deal with quasi-Asian conditions in their own backyard, what hope do they have of doing so in the subcontinent proper?
Tactically, SA did not help themselves by waiting for two wickets to fall and 7.3 overs to be bowled before sending in their best batsman, AB de Villiers.
Among the few South Africans who did not give their wickets away were Quinton de Kock and Albie Morkel. There was justice, then, in the fact that their scores of 41 and 18 respectively were their team’s highest.
De Kock featured in the two biggest stands of SA’s innings - both of 24 runs - with JP Duminy and De Villiers.
The stranglers in chief were Mitchell Starc, whose figures of 2/16 are the most miserly by an Australian against SA in this format, and Glenn Maxwell, who was gifted wickets by Du Plessis and Duminy while limiting the runs he conceded to 19.
Had Australia not rested David Warner, they might have chased down the target in significantly fewer deliveries. But they got there comfortably enough with Aaron Finch hitting six fours in his 39 and Shane Watson muscling 35 off 28 balls.
Imran Tahir took on the Australians for the first time since his record mauling in the Adelaide test in November 2012, when he went wicketless for match figures of 270. This time, he took 2/21 in an impressive display of rebuilt confidence.
But SA needed more than that, and they didn’t have it.
* Reported off television
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