South Africa’s captain Temba Bavuma played the most valiant and valuable knock of his ODI career but it all went it vain as South Africa lost the first ODI to Australia in an low scoring thriller at the Mangaung Oval in Bloemfontein.
The three wickets win for the visitors was quite eventful and nervy for almost 15 overs, in pursuit of 223, Australia found themselves 113 for 7 on a difficult wicket to bat on. However, the concussion substitute for Cameron Green, Marnus Labuschagne had his first opportunity in the series, and made it count effectively with player of match performance.
Earlier, South Africa had a shakey start to their innings after being asked to bat first by Australia. Quinton de Kock, who made announcement of his retirement two days earlier, struggled to get going. Captain Bavuma, despite starting slowly, kept his composure, grinding on a tough batting wicket.
Aiden Markam and Heinrich Klaasen got promising start to their innings, the former lost his wicket due to a bad shot selection while Klaasen was undone uneven nature of the pitch. Rassie Van der Dussen axed his own innings with a horrible mix-up between the wickets, he played a shot towards the long off and incautiously decided to run that didn’t go well for him.
Bavuma played a match defining knock, something for his bowlers to work with and until the 15th over the Australian chasing, South Africa remained at top, sending back 7 Aussies and only needing 3 wickets to win. Labuschagne had different plans though, he stood there and played aggresively in the beginning to keep the game running, once he sensed victory was possible, played cautiously, not giving any opportunity to South African bowlers to bring back their team into the game.
Agar was the perfect partner Labuschagne could have asked for, he remained call and understood the task well, negotiating and manouvering the innings, in process, eliminating the risk element which South Africa desperately needed to have a breakthrough. South Africa were 3 wickets away from first win of the entire tour but this wasn’t how it meant to go for them despite having got themselves into a winning position, somehow they let it go.
Partially non-disciplined bowling from Proteas and a fantastic game awareness and commitment from the Australian pair produced the result. The problem persist for the home as they have failed to win last three series at home. Yes, there has been opportunities for young players who hasn’t produced their best yet.
South Africa’s struggle was quite evident so was their strength. They have these amazing individuals who can step up the game and keep South Africa ahead in the game single-handedly. However, one will think it requires a complete team effort to transform the winning potential to actual victory.
South Africa and Australia will meet again at the Bloemfontein on Sunday evening for the second ODI match of the series. South Africa will come out with better plans, maybe with a couple of changes and Australia will like to continue with their jovial tour.
