Maharaj stars as Australia collapse to spin after Breetzke hundred
Marco Jansen followed a powerful 75 off 59 balls with one of the great catches to inspire the home side
Marco Jansen followed a powerful 75 off 59 balls with one of the great catches to inspire the home side
Scorer: Sudeep Poojar | Commentator: Alex Malcolm
South Africa lead the series 1-0. The two teams head to Johannesburg on Sunday for the second ODI. Hope you can join us then.
6.04pm Presentation
South Africa captain Temba Bavuma: "Very satisfied. All round it was a good fight from the batters and the bowlers. Looking at how both innings started, both of them we were under pressure but we managed to get ourselves to a competitive total with the bat and similarly with the bowling as well. We stuck in. The way Matthew Breetzke played, the positions and intensity was something to commend. The way Marco Jansen played as well was great. Helps to have a guy like Keshav in terms of experience with the ball. The spinners did an incredible job."
Australia captain Mitchell Marsh: "Pretty disappointing. South Africa outplayed us. I think they got 100 runs off the last 10 overs. We fell well short tonight. We pushed to try and get a couple of extra wickets and it didn't work out and I thought Marco Jansen played really well. We had our opportunities with the bat. I sound like a broken record but we weren't able to form partnerships. We knew Maharaj and Fortuin were going to be keys for us in terms of how we played them and unfortunately we weren't able to execute. It's a good opportunity to learn from this."
Player of the match is Matthew Breetzke: "It was really tricky early on with those first two wickets going down and against a world class bowling attack we had to dig deep. It took a lot out of me mentally but just grateful that I got through and got that ton and we won the game. That chat was just to play nice and straight. When you looked too square you saw a few leading edges."
5.54pm South Africa win by 67 runs. Extraordinary turnaround. Australia were 129 for 1 after 16 overs and lost 9 for 101 to lose easily. Keshav Maharaj and Bjorn Fortuin did most of the damage. Maharaj took 4 for 20 from 9.2 overs. Fortuin finished with two wickets as did Bosch. The catching from Jansen and Breetzke was also outstanding after those two set up the game with an outstanding partnership. Some soul searching to do for Australia ahead of game two.
Gnasher notes that since the 2023 World Cup Australia's collective batting average of 21.57 against left-arm spin is the worst of all 20 nations playing ODI cricket in that time.
Bhav: "Why on earth were the Australian batsman trying to hit everything out of the park when singles down the ground were enough "
A Zampa c Breetzke b Maharaj 7 (12m 15b 1x4 0x6) SR: 46.66
NT Ellis b Bosch 4 (19m 10b 0x4 0x6) SR: 40
Johann: "If SA wins (never a dead cert!) Maharaj should be MoM. If not for him, Aus could have chased 400."
Jansen's all-round impact and Breetzke's ton helped South Africa overcome Australia and their mounting injury concerns
Marco Jansen followed a powerful 75 off 59 balls with one of the great catches to inspire the home side
South Africa pick two left-arm spinners and three quicks with Coetzee returning for the first time in three years
With four fast bowlers already lost to injury, the hosts will have to balance playing their strongest team and keeping players fit