Mitchell Marsh scores 92, Tanveer Sangha takes 4-fer on debut as Australia handovers South Africa 111 runs defeat in first T20I
Australia has hammered South Africa at Kingsmead, Durban in the first T20I, beating the home side by 111 runs. Coming to the tour as underodogs under the leadership of newly instated captain Mitchell Marsh, Australia played like definite T20 rockstars, posting massive 226 runs in 20 overs then crushing South Africa by a big margin.
Australia started their innings on a flyer, taking ultra aggresive approch and giving no breathing space to South African bowlers. It was due to the fact that South African bowlers weren’t able to find any rhythm, and sloppy fielding on the turf only made matters worse for them. Australia dominated the powerplay with the bat, scoring 70 runs for 3 wickets.
Despite playing with four debutants, Australia looked in no pressure at all. Matthew Short started his innings with swashbuckling shots, taking no pressure of playing debut game. Marsh brought his 50 in just 23 balls but Australia had lost 4 wickets by the 8th over so he changed the course and decided to play till the end.
Tim David proved why he is so sought after in T20 cricket. When he came to bat, Australia were in a bit of trouble and the situation demanded a few overs to be seen cautiously which he did but once he starts get going, it looked like a phenomenal show of brutal ball striking. He scored 64 off 28 balls, with 4 maximums by the time, Tabraiz Shamsi succeeded in dismissing him, the damage was done.
Even the debutant Aaron Hardie looked in good nick, scoring 23 off 14 balls. Mitchell Marsh, on the other hand, remained not out, scoring 92 runs of 49 balls. All five South African bowlers struggled, leaking over 10 runs per over, bowling a number of full tosses and for the most part of the innings, they looked clueless about their plans and executions.
Tanveer Sangha Too Hot for Proteas
The 21 years old landed on Wednesday and played hid debut game on Thursday yet successfully trapped four South African batters. What a debut match! Chasing 227, South Africa had rare chance of hunting it down and their woes were deepened when Marcus Stoinis sent Temba Bavuma back to the pavallion with a beautiful inswinging delivery.
Rassie Van der Dussen and Reeza Hendricks released some fireworks but the former’s innings was cut short by Sean Abbott. After that, the show belonged to debutant Tanveer Sangha who first outfoxed Aiden Markam then made prey of South Africa’s debutant Dewald Brevis who played a reckless shot that went straight into the hands of Abbott. On the very next ball, Tristan Stubbs failed to read Sangha’s sharp leg spin and was stumped Josh Inglis.
Sangha’s dream debut didn’t stop there. In his second spell, he dismissed Marco Jansen, completing his maiden four wicket haul on debut. By this time, South Africa had already sensed their demise and rest of the job was done by Marcus Stoinis and debutant Spencer Johnson, both shared two wickets each of the falling South African lower order.
Only Reeza Hendricks, 56 off 43 balls, showed some resistance but he kept losing partners on the other end and this remained the story of South African batting in the second innings. In the end, they tumbled out for 115 runs in 15.3 overs as Australia took 1-0 lead in the 3 match T20I series.
