You may call it brilliant bowling or inept batting, Keshav Maharaj, the wily left arm orthodox, ripped out the heart of the Australian batting to hand over South Africa a terrific victory over Australia in the first ODI of the 3 match bilateral series.
The match played out at the Cazaly Stadium in Cairns saw hosts Australia at the receiving end for most of the day and eventually lost by 98 runs to the Proteas, who were brilliant all day long.
South Africa batted first and set Australia a target of 297 to win the game. The Aussies started well with skipper Mitch Marsh and the dangerous Travis Head adding 60 for the first wicket before the South African spinners and Maharaj in particular sent the Aussie batters packing.
Prenelan Subrayen, the off-spinner, got one to dip and leave a rushing Travis Head to have him stumped with ease. Then, in a period of sensational bowling, Keshav Maharaj got rid of Marnus Labuschagne, Cameron Green, Josh Inglis, Alex Carey, and Aaron Hardie in no time to reduce Australia to 89/6.
Maharaj bowled straight. The ball coming into the right-handed batter from a slight angle, pitching, and then turning away. The batters were drawn into playing a shot but did not cover for the spin, played inside the line, and were either castled or adjudged leg before wicket. There was assistance from the pitch too, but the Australians neither used their feet nor read the bowler well.
Josh Inglis played back to a ball that came in with the arm. The ball pitched and rushed in, and before Inglis could get his bat down, his stumps were in a mess. Cameron Green and Aaron Hardie played inside the line to a ball that turned a bit more and lost their stumps too. Labuschagne and Alex Carey were lbw, and Australia had collapsed big time to the guile of Maharaj.
The Aussie batters were poor two and played like novices. There were no demons in the pitch, it is just that playing spin did not look a part of their batting repertoire.
Captain Marsh had a good partnership with Dwarshius, but they needed to climb a treacherous mountain. Eventually, the Aussies succumbed to the pressure and caved in for just 198.
While batting for South Africa, Aiden Markram, Mathew Breetzke, and Temba Bavuma scored half-centuries and managed to set Australia a fighting total.
It will be interesting to see how Australia responds, as the series moves to the Great Barrier Reef for the remaining two games.
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