South Africa too strong for Australia in T20 clash

GOLD COAST, Australia: Speedster Chris Morris claimed two key wickets as South Africa strangled Australia to a 21-run victory in their rain-reduced Twenty20 international on the Gold Coast on Saturday.

The South Africans easily protected their 108 for six total off 10 overs to restrict Australia to 87 for seven with Morris the star of the Proteas bowling attack. Morris claimed the wickets of D’Arcy Short for a first-ball duck and Chris Lynn for 14 in his opening over to trigger a wicket slide.

The Australians fell away from 21 for one after two overs to be 60 for six upon the dismissal of Alex Carey for eight in the seventh over with Lungi Ngidi (2-16) and Andile Phehlukwayo (2-21) also among the wickets. “The bowlers once again stepped up and produced the goods. Picking up wickets in this format is always important because T20 is all about slogging,” skipper Faf du Plessis said. South Africa also downed Australia 2-1 in the one-day series preceding the one-off T20 international. Glenn Maxwell was Australia’s topscorer with 38 off 23 balls with two sixes but was guilty of moving around the wicket and missing hittable deliveries as the pressure mounted on the home side.

“I think they (South Africa) got off to a great start with the bat. We did well to pull it back in the end, but they had a lot of runs with them,” Australia captain Aaron Finch said.

“The boys are hurting as much as anyone but we’ll turn it around real quick (in the home series) against India.” In the end the difference was the execution of the powerplays. South Africa smashed 42 runs, losing just the one wicket, while Australia could manage only 27, and lost their top three batsmen. Earlier Andrew Tye and Nathan Coulter-Nile claimed two wickets each as South Africa reached 108 for six after being sent into bat.

Score Board

South Africa

Quinton de Kock st Carey b Maxwell 22

R Hendricks c McDermott b Coulter 19

F du Plessis c Maxwell b Stanlake 27

H Klaasen c Maxwell b Coulter 12

David Miller c Short b Tye 11

Chris Morris c Carey b Tye 0

Farhaan Behardien not out 3

Andile Phehlukwayo not out 2

Extras: (lb7, nb1, w4) 12

Total: (6 wickets; 10 overs) 108

Did not bat: Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi, Tabraiz Shamsi.

Fall of wickets: 1-42 (Hendricks), 2-61 (de Kock), 3-84 (du Plessis), 4-99 (Klaasen), 5-104 (Miller), 6-106 (Morris)

Bowling: Behrendorff 1-0-15-0, Stanlake 2-0-23-1 (2w), Coulter-Nile 2-0-19-2, Maxwell 2-0-14-1, Short 1-0-12-0, Tye 2-0-18-2 (1w, 1nb)

Australia (target 109)

Aaron Finch b Ngidi 7

Chris Lynn b Morris 14

D’Arcy Short c Phehlukwayo b Morris 0

Glenn Maxwell c Behardien b Ngidi 38

Marcus Stoinis c sub b Phehlukwayo 5

B McDermott c de Kock b Phehlukwayo 4

Alex Carey c Klaasen b Shamsi 8

Nathan Coulter-Nile not out 2

Extras: (lb5, w4) 9

Total: (7 wickets; 10 overs) 87

Did not bat: Andrew Tye, Jason Behrendorff, Billy Stanlake.

Fall of wickets: 1-21 (Finch), 2-26 (Short), 3-27 (Lynn), 4-37 (Stoinis), 5-43 (McDermott), 6-60 (Carey), 7-87 (Maxwell)

Bowling: Rabada 2-0-21-0 (1w), Ngidi 2-0-16-2 (1w), Morris 2-0-12-2 (1w), Phehlukwayo 2-0-21-2 (1w), Shamsi 2-0-12-1.

Toss: Australia

Result: South Africa won by 21 runs

Umpires: Gerard Abood, Paul Wilson (AUS)

TV umpire: Simon Fry (AUS)

Match referee: Jeff Crowe (NZ). —AFP