SA lost Aussie series in their heads first, then on the field

Times Media

TELFORD VICE, Cape Town

QUINTON de Kock’s sixth century was not good enough, and neither were career-best scores for Farhaan Behardien and Rilee Rossouw nor Robin Peterson’s third four-wicket haul - SA still crashed to defeat in the last one-day international against Australia in Sydney on Sunday.

Not only did the Aussies claim the series 4-1, they also knocked SA off the top spot in the ODI rankings. And deservedly so. The visitors were seldom outplayed in the series, but even more rarely were they the better team.

On Sunday, they scored what looked like a competitive 280/6 only for Australia to reel in the target - which was revised to 275 off 48 over by a rain delay - with two wickets standing and five balls to spare.

AB de Villiers, who missed the match with bruised ribs, admitted that his men were “hurting and disappointed”.

“It’s not ideal and not what we planned to do,” he said. “Had we done the basics better, we probably could have won a lot more than one game.

“It’s very disappointing looking back knowing we didn’t do the basics well. It’s the kind of thing a consistent cricket team needs to do to be successful all the time.”

Not for the first time, SA may have lost the series in their heads.

“Sometimes, when you tend to talk about something too much you put so much emphasis on it and put pressure on yourself, you do funny things in those situations,” De Villiers said.

“We put a lot of emphasis on powerplays. I put a lot of emphasise on our fielding. Those were the things that let us down. I always talk about basics, and that let us down.

“Maybe I must stop talking about the little things we mustn’t do and talk about the things we should do.”

But De Villiers did not shy away from talking about something his bowlers should not do - squander runs and deliveries on no-balls. They bowled 10 of them in the series.

“It’s just unacceptable. It shouldn’t happen. It’s just not good enough. We’ve never bowled that amount of no-balls in a series; nowhere near. It’s cost us badly.”

De Kock hit 56 of his 107 in boundaries in another display of youth at its most confident. It was a welcome performance considering it marked just the third time in his last dozen innings that he has passed 50.

Behardien snapped a streak of 10 innings in which he had not scored an ODI half-century. He made 63 off 41 balls and marshalled the innings effectively into the last over of the innings.

Rossouw earned a reputation for something else besides suffering four ducks in his first six ODIs by scoring a patient 51.

Australia were cruising on 264/4 in the 44th over when Peterson had Steve Smith wonderfully caught by Rossouw running and diving from deep cover. Smith scored 67, the third time he has scored at least 50 in the rubber.

Including that delivery, the Aussies lost four wickets for three runs in 12 balls - three of them to Peterson, who took 4/32.

But there was to be no fairytale as James Faulkner and Mitchell Starc got the Aussies home comfortably enough.

The South Africans will be home on Monday afternoon, and not comfortably considering they have just five ODIs worth of preparation left before the World Cup.