The kids are alright enough to beat SA

Times Media

TELFORD VICE, Cape Town

A bunch of kids achieved in Sydney on Sunday what has only been done twice in SA’s previous 18 games - they won.

A Cricket Australia XI, only one of whom has been capped at full international level, 10 of whom were under the age of 23, six of them playing their first senior T20 and four of those involved in their first senior representative match in any format, beat SA by 22 runs in their T20 tour match.

Before Sunday, in the 18 matches SA had played since the end of their World T20 campaign on April 4, their only losses were suffered in two ODIs against Sri Lanka and Australia. SA had not lost any of their previous five games.

Ashton Turner, all 21 years and 281 days of him, smashed 73 off 46 balls in the homes side’s total of 189/5. Kyle Abbott, who took 2/22, was the only SA bowler to claim more than one wicket and concede less than a run a ball. Kagiso Rabada, meanwhile, was hammered for 46 runs in his four overs.

Not only were SA beaten, they were bowled out - for 167 in 18.5 overs. Rilee Rossouw, who scored 47, and Wayne Parnell, who made 35, were the only South Africans to get past 30. Quinton de Kock, JP Duminy and David Miller were all dismissed for single figure scores.

“When you’re on tour, you want to go into the first game of the series with some runs under your belt,” Turner, the home side’s captain, said. “A lot of their guys have not got runs, so that’s only good for Australia.”

Not that SA captain Duminy was overly fussed by all that, according to a Cricket SA release: “There are a few things to work on, but let’s not take it away from them - they played some good shots when they batted. The plans that we had in place were good but sometimes our execution wasn’t on par.

“I am quite happy with what we dished up for a first time out as a young unit. We have two more training sessions to put it together and hopefully we will be ready come Wednesday (when SA play Australia in Adelaide in the first of three T20s).”

Duminy did not add that his team were without AB de Villiers, Hashim Amla, Faf du Plessis, Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel, who have all been rested for the series.

Imran Tahir did not play on Sunday because of a shoulder injury which SA hope will be resolved by Wednesday.