Australia v South Africa – 1st T20 International – Match Recap
South Africa 146 v Australia 147 - Australia won by 5 wickets (with 3 balls remaining)
Australia beat hosts South Africa in the first T20 match of the two-match series by five wickets after successfully chasing a tally of 147 runs at Newlands, Cape Town on Thursday, October 13, 2011.
The T20 series would be followed by a three-match one-day series and then a two-match Test series between the two mightiest teams in modern-day cricket.
After winning the toss, South African skipper Hashim Amla chose to bat first against a competitive Australian bowling contingent.
Amla is leading the team in the absence of AB de Villiers who was ruled out of the tournament after fracturing his finger on the left hand in a practice session during the recently concluded Champions League T20.
This was going to be his first series as captain after being given the realms of the national team when former skipper Graeme Smith relinquished his post on the ouster of his team from the International Cricket Council (ICC) World Cup 2011.
Meanwhile, South Africa aimed to post a competitive total on the board to give the Aussies a run for their money as opener Amla and Smith came out to bat.
However, on the last delivery of the first over, Smith perished without scoring a run when he edged a delivery bowled by Doug Bollinger off his bat right into his stumps.
An over later, Amla followed Smith back to the pavilion after playing a short innings of four runs as he was run-out when South Africa had managed to post only 10 runs on the board.
With both flamboyant openers back in the pavilion, South Africa were in a spot of bother as they were banking on their openers to dominate the aggressive Australian bowling line-up.
However, middle-order batsmen Colin Ingram and Jean-Paul Duminy prevented a complete meltdown as they forged a resilient batting partnership against their rivals.
The duo clobbered 58 runs in the third-wicket partnership to subdue the Australians who had earlier gotten off to a superb start by grabbing the wickets of the South African openers.
In the 12th over, 21-year-old Australian pacer James Pattinson finally broke the partnership by grabbing the wicket of Ingram, who after scoring 33 runs off 28 deliveries was caught by Pat Cummins near the boundary.
However, Australia’s troubles were not over as David Miller came out to bat an exuberant partnership with Duminy. The batsmen smashed 65 runs together in the fourth-wicket partnership, blowing away the Aussie bowling attack to smithereens.
It was then Cummins, who struck twice in the 19th over to grab the wickets of Duminy and Miller, ending the partnership that had caused enough damage to the Australians.
Duminy departed after making 67 runs off 53 deliveries while Miller found his way back to the pavilion after posting 20 runs off 19 deliveries.
Later, South Africa ended their innings by bolstering a competitive total of 146 runs on the board.
Coming out to bat, Australia also suffered a bad start to their innings as they lost the wicket of opener David Warner on the third delivery of the first over when he was run-out without scoring a run.
However, flamboyant opener Shane Watson and middle-order batsman Shaun Marsh clobbered their way to supremacy as they smashed sensational shots all around the park.
The two batsmen posted 82 runs in the second-wicket partnership as Australia dominated the fielding side.
Watson was then caught by Miller at cover off the bowling of Morne Morkel after playing a knock of 52 runs off 45 deliveries.
However, Australia’s remaining middle-order steered their side to victory as Australia posted 147 runs for the loss of five wickets in 19.3 overs.
Watson was named as the Player of the Match for his superb show with the bat.
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