Batting first, the Australian openers, with their usual quick start, got going early and looked set to set up the innings with a huge opening partnership. However, South Africa ensured that did not happen as a combination of spin and medium-pace kept Australia at arm’s length. By the end of the fifteenth over, the game looked evenly poised with the scoreboard reading 116/3. But that was when the South Africans grabbed back control of the game. Over the last five overs of the innings, the Proteas claimed five wickets at the cost of just 28 runs to set themselves a target of 145.

With a sub-par total to chase down, South Africa started with a flurry of runs off the usually reliable Mitchell Starc, who leaked 27 runs in just three overs, to get their innings off to a perfect start. It was all one-way traffic from there on as the Aussie struggled to pick up wickets and even though they tried to stem the bleeding of runs, it was never going to be enough with the kind of score they had to defend. De Kock and van der Dussen set up the innings perfectly before Klassen came in to provide the finishing touches at the end to seal an eight-wicket win for the Proteas. 

There could have only been one turning point for this game - Aaron Finch’s wicket. The Aussie skipper had gone past his half-century mark and looked like he was ready to go after the bowlers in the fag end of the innings. However, as he holed out to van der Dussen off a Shamsi delivery on 60, the game just got away from Australia. As he walked back to the pavilion, Australia still had four more overs to get their team to a respectable total but all they could muster was 18 runs. Sport has a lot of ifs attached to it and this game is a prime example of the same. At least, as far as the Australians are concerned.

This was a difficult decision for me as Australia’s middle order and their premier bowler both looked out of touch today. Eventually, I decided to stick with the latter. Australia were defending a sub-par total and they needed their star man to rise to the occasion and provide a good start to the defence. In reality, though, Starc started the innings by conceding nine off his first over. He followed that up with a ten-run over before his horrendous spell was brought to a merciful end following an eight-run over to bring the powerplay to an end. He still had a chance at redemption as the Aussies somehow managed to keep the run flow in check and gave themselves an outside chance at the end defending 19 off 12 balls. With Cummins conceding just 16 in his three, up stepped Starc to bowl the penultimate over. It took him just five balls to help South Africa cross the final hurdle. It is a game that he would like to forget as quickly as possible.

It appeared that Australia were just going to pick it up from where they had left off against England with Warner and Finch going after the South African quicks right from the get-go. With 26 runs coming off the first three overs, Australia looked well on their way to a huge powerplay score. However, Warner’s dismissal and Tahir’s economical over ensured that the Aussies ended the first six with a par score of 39/1 which only earns them 7/10 on our ratings.

While Smith and Finch might have taken the end of the powerplay to ensure that no more damage was inflicted, the former in particular started off the middle overs with some intent. Going after Shamsi and Phehlukwayo, they took 38 runs off the next four overs to put the Aussies in a comfortable position at the midway point of the innings. However, the dismissals of Smith and Maxwell in consecutive overs meant that even though Phehlukwayo conceded 33 runs in three overs, it wasn’t all bad for the Proteas. A 7.5 is the best that we can offer the Aussies for their efforts in the middle overs. 

If you thought that the 39 runs that the Aussies scored against the English was bad, it got much worse for them today. Tahir and Rabada claimed two wickets each in back to back overs after Shamsi had removed Finch from the equation an over earlier. The Australian tail, for once, did not bail its team out and even though they ensured that the entire quota of overs was played out, all the team could manage to score was 28 runs in the final five overs. Had they managed to inflict an all-out on the Aussies we would not have hesitated in handing out a perfect score, so 9.5 it is.

Unlike a typical Australia-South Africa game, the match was a quiet affair. Such was the intensity of the game that only two men cleared the ropes for both teams combined. However, that did not mean that we did not have a game on our hand. If only Starc had not bowled that disastrous last over, we might have had a grandstand finish in the last over.