South Africa draw first blood as Australia capitulate in Durban ODI opener
Australia's one-day tour of South Africa began with a thud at Kingsmead, Durban, as the world champions capitulated tamely to a 67-run defeat in the opening match of the three-ODI series. Staring at a 298-run target, the visitors crumpled to 230 all out off just 41.2 overs, undone by a succession of cheap dismissals in a sorry run chase.
Stand-in skipper Mitch Marsh, leading the side again in the absence of the rested Pat Cummins, could not hide his dismay. "I'm pretty disappointed, South Africa outplayed us. It was a good game of cricket, but we fell well short," Marsh sighed. "We had our opportunities, I am probably going to sound like a broken record speaking about having partnerships in our batting, but we weren't able to form many tonight."
Breetzke and Jansen set the tone
The Proteas compiled a challenging 297-8 after being inserted by Marsh's decision to put them in, thanks largely to a brilliant 112 from Matthew Breetzke and a spectacular 75 off 59 balls from pace-bowling allrounder Marco Jansen.
Marsh led from the front in response, his blistering opening knock of 60 featuring three sixes — one of which sailed for 104 metres over the dressing room roof at Kingsmead and landed at the roadside. He shared a run-a-minute opening stand of 90 in just 9.2 overs with Travis Head, and for a while Australia appeared to be cruising, up with the required rate and under no real pressure.
Spin twins rip through the middle order
The superb spinning of the two slow left-armers, Kehav Maharaj (4-20) and Bjorn Fortuin (2-34), soon applied the squeeze. Head (36), the supreme-looking Cooper Connolly (38) and Matt Renshaw (44) all got out to airy shots when the Australians were well placed, while a poorly executed reverse sweep accounted for Josh Inglis on the eighth ball he faced.
The key moment may have come when Jansen took a sensational running, diving, one-handed catch in the outfield, stretching out his long telescopic arm to scoop up the ball just above the turf to remove key man Renshaw off Gerald Coetzee. That left Australia on 215-7, and there was no way back: the last six wickets fell for just 54 runs as the Proteas drew first blood in the series.
Wanderers test looms
The opening loss has heaped pressure on Australia to turn the series around at The Wanderers in Johannesburg on Sunday, when Cummins is set to be recalled. The omens are unkind, though: Australia have not won a bilateral series against South Africa since 2014.