Breetzke and Maharaj sink Australia in first one-day international / Photo: GIANLUIGI GUERCIA - AFP
Breetzke and Maharaj sink Australia in first one-day international
Matthew Breetzke hit a century and left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj took four wickets as South Africa beat Australia by 67 runs in the first one-day international at Kingsmead on Thursday.
Breetzke’s 112 and a hard-hit 75 by Marco Jansen took South Africa to 297 for eight after they were sent in.
But Australia became favourites when Mitchell Marsh and Travis Head thrashed 90 for the first wicket inside the 10-over powerplay.
The match swung dramatically when Maharaj had Marsh caught for 60, made off 36 balls. A combination of excellent spin bowling by Maharaj and fellow left-armer Bjorn Fortuin, some poor shots and good catching put South Africa in charge.
Maharaj took four for 20 and Fortuin two for 34 as Australia were bowled out for 230.
“We’re pretty disappointed,” said Marsh, who was captaining Australia in the absence of Pat Cummins, who sat out the opening match of the three-game series after a late arrival in South Africa.
"We pushed to get those last few wickets but they hammered us in the last 10 overs," Marsh said at the post-match presentation. "I thought Marco Jansen batted very well."
Marsh said Australia failed to build on his stand with Head.
"We got the (required) run rate down. We had opportunities with the bat but we weren’t able to form partnerships."
Breetzke came in with South Africa struggling at 29 for two on a pitch which offered early assistance to Australian seam bowlers Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Ellis.
"It was tricky early on. With a bowling attack like that I really had to dig deep," he said.
He had partnerships of 54 with captain Temba Bavuma (30) and 42 with Ryan Rickelton (27) before he was joined by Jansen in a sixth wicket stand of 107 off 83 balls.
The tall Jansen struck four sixes and seven fours in an innings of 75 off 59 deliveries.
Marsh launched an extraordinary assault at the start of the Australian innings, hitting five sixes inside the first five overs as Jansen leaked runs faster than he had scored them, conceding 33 runs in his first three overs.
Marsh scored all but four of his runs in boundaries – six sixes and five fours – before he was caught by Breetzke at cover off Maharaj.
Although Jansen conceded 64 runs while taking a single wicket in seven overs, he took four catches, including a sensational full-length diving effort in the deep to dismiss Matt Renshaw, Australia’s last realistic batting hope.
J.Stadler--NWT
