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Proteas manage to keep Aussies down

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SWEET VICTORY Lungi Ngidi (left) celebrates taking Aaron Finch’s wicket during their T20 match at Metricon Stadium yesterday. Picture: Getty Images
SWEET VICTORY Lungi Ngidi (left) celebrates taking Aaron Finch’s wicket during their T20 match at Metricon Stadium yesterday. Picture: Getty Images

The Proteas finished their brief limited-overs tour of Australia in much the same way they began it: with a comprehensive win over the hosts in the one-off T20 match of the trip in the Gold Coast.

Having won the one-day international series 2-1 last Sunday, Faf du Plessis’ men showed few signs of fatigue and were in full control en route to winning the rain-shortened game at the Metricon Stadium by 21 runs.

With the batsmen having posted a competitive total that would require an Australia side short on confidence to score at more than 10 runs an over to win, the bowlers – aided by good fielding – took the result home.

Fast bowler Chris Morris (2/12 off two overs) and left-arm wrist spinner Tabraiz Shamsi (1/12 off two) – who, along with Farhaan Behardien were getting their first run in a competitive match on tour – were the pick of the bowlers, with all-rounder Andile Phehlukwayo continuing his happy knack of taking wickets (2/21 off his two).

Morris bowled fast and with particular control of both the yorker and the short ball, an example being the guided missile that removed the Aussies’ most dangerous batsman, Chris Lynn.

And the hosts’ batsmen simply couldn’t read Shamsi, whose calm bowling in the eye of the storm helped the Proteas slow the run rate in the middle overs.

Having started by scoring 13 runs off Kagiso Rabada in the first over of their innings, the Aussies managed to keep tabs on the run rate until the fourth over (Glenn Maxwell top scored with 38 off 23 balls), but they persisted with the poor shot selection that has been their undoing and lost wickets at regular intervals.

Earlier, the hosts opted to bowl after rain delayed the start by 10 minutes short of two hours as it pelted down at Carrara’s stadium. But when the game began, it was the visitors who were on the front foot.

Openers Quinton de Kock and Reeza Hendricks were brutal on the Aussie attack, their opening partnership of 42 compiled in a mere 2.5 overs.

De Kock hit crisply for his 22 runs off 16 balls (two sixes) and Hendricks pulled with impunity for his 19 off just eight balls (three fours and a six) to set up a great platform for the visitors.

On a wicket that was seemingly made easier for the batsmen by the rain before the start – the expectation was it was going to be low and slow, but it skidded through – Du Plessis continued in similarly belligerent vein, belting 27 off 15 balls before falling to a stupendous juggling catch on the boundary by Maxwell.

While the Proteas’ start was so fast it bordered on a false start in sprints, their finish was a lawnmower one as they crept to 108/6 in their innings after having reached 50 off just 4.2 overs, with AJ Tye – the highest wicket-taker in international T20 this year – instrumental in slowing things down with his 2/18 off two overs at the death. 

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