BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - SUPERB bowling performances by Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Adam Zampa ensured that Australia came away victors by 36 runs at Warner Park over South Africa last evening (June 11).
Their first match in the Tri-series in St. Kitts, Australia won the toss on a good surface and chose to take first strike.
Opener David Warner continued in his rich vein of form when he stroked a patient 109; his first century outside of Australia to guide the World Champions to a competitive 288 for 6 off their 50 overs.
In reply, South Africa - cruising at 209 for 3 - collapsed to 252 all out inside 48 overs - with Starc, Zampa and Hazlewood taking three wickets each.
With a dejected spirit, South Africa’s captain Faf Du Plessis told reporters at the post match press conference that he was quite certain that it was impossible to lose the game from the position they were in.
He expressed his disappointment in some of the batsmen gifting their wicket to the bowlers, noting that they lost the match between overs 30-40.
“It was a case of a few of us giving to the Australian team soft wickets, and obvious Mitchell Starc was really good and you can’t afford to give him a sniff,” Du Plessis noted.
Meanwhile, Warner, who also bagged the Man of the Match award, suggested that even with the victory there are several areas in which his team needs to improve ahead of their encounter with the West Indies.
“Our skipper would not be happy with our first 25 overs with the ball…and having a batter at the backend instead of having a guy come in and start fresh, that is probably the keys that we would be working on. We know that given the small ground the impact of the big players that the West Indies have, we would have to be on, from ball one and we would have to really hit our lengths and not miss our mark.”
The small size of the ground, he noted, could be deceptive to batsmen going out and play aggressively, but for him it calls for patience and knowing when to attack the right balls.
“It is always challenging when you play on these small grounds, because in the back of your mind you have to take your ego out of it,” Warner added.
After losing opening partner Aaron Finch with 48 runs on the board, Warner and Usman Khawaja put on a 136-run partnership before he fell to Wayne Parnell just after the drinks break.
Khawaja followed 12 runs later when he top edged a sweep to Hashim Amla off the bowling of left-arm orthodox spinner Aaron Phangiso for 59.
Captain Steven Smith was next in the crease and he struck several lusty blows but they fell short of setting the South Africans a 300-run target.
With his leg breakers, Imran Tahir was the pick of the South African bowlers, bagging 2 for 45 from nine overs, while Aaron Phangiso, Wayne Parnell, Kagiso Rabada and Kyle Abbott each claimed a wicket.
Du Plessis top scored with 63 from 95 balls and Amla contributed 60 from 105.
Action continues tomorrow from 1:00 p.m. at the same venue with West Indies going all-out against Australia.
