Australia’s A side continued their dominance in the Coca Cola tri series after they recorded a fourth straight victory. They won the nail biting encounter against South Africa that went up to the last over by one wicket in Harare yesterday. They ensured a comfortable spot to the series finale to be played on Friday here.
South Africa opened their account with Captain Jacques Rudolph and Jonathan Vandiar who had a first wicket stand of 123 runs. Vandiar was the first to depart after attempting a quick single off the bowling of Steve O’Keefe. An excellent piece of fielding by due Mitch Marsh and Nathan Lyon made sure Vandiar was back in the pavilion.
Rudolph was joined by Rilee Roussouw for another sterling partnership that yielded a total 64 runs off 78 deliveries. Rudolph played a magnificent and well calculated 90 runs after facing 102 deliveries before being caught behind by wicket keeper Tim Paine off the bowling of Steve O’Keefe. Roussouw had a quick 50 off just 49 balls and was eventually trapped leg before wicket Marsh for 52 runs. The other notable contribution came from in-form Roelof van der Merwe who entertained the little crowd with two sixes and two fours to make 40 runs off 30 balls. He saw the end of the innings together with Rory Kleinveldt who also sent Lyon for two consecutive sixes and getting 13 off three deliveries to give the South Africans a grand total of 298runs.
Australia needed 299 runs to record their fourth straight victory in the Tri series. They started their run chase with David Warner and Mitch Finch who produced a first wicket partnership of 39 runs. Warner was caught for 22 at gully by Roussouw off Keinveldt’s bowling after facing 17 deliveries. Finch was joined by man of the match Marsh who scored 72 off 73 balls. Marsh is also son to former Zimbabwe national team coach Geoff Marsh. Finch later departed for 39 after having consumed 44 deliveries when he was trapped lbw by Ontong.
Ferguson stepped onto the crease to join Marsh and had a partnership that yielded runs off balls with Marsh. Australia looked set to win the match before marsh attempted playing the glance shot to the leg side instead he lofted the ball to Vandiar’s waiting arms. The captain Paine then came in and made 33 runs off 37 deliveries before being caught behind by wicket keeper Kuhn off a Philander delivery to leave the score at 236 for five. Butterworth, Okeefe, Hastings and Starc did not do much to trouble the scorers as they made 19, 11, two and four respectively.
Then, came the last over which was the highlight of the match were Australia’s Copeland and Lyon were in the middle. The two tail end batsmen new they required five runs off six deliveries and there was nothing they could do besides walking down the pitch and swing the bat hard, Copeland did just that on the fifth ball of that over as he pulled a short Kleinveldt delivery over the square leg umpire for victory.
No comments:
Post a Comment