Left-arm fast bowler Mitchell Starc led a strong Australia bowling performance and set up a comfortable six-wicket win against South Africa in the third and final Twenty20 international at SuperSport Park on Friday.
South Africa struggled to 128-7 after being sent in. Aaron Finch hit 39 and Shane Watson 35 as Australia cruised to victory with five overs to spare.
Man-of-the-match Starc started with a maiden and dismissed Hashim Amla in his second over, which cost only three runs. He came back later and bowled big-hitting Albie Morkel to finish with 2-16 in his four overs.
Photo: AFP
South Africa captain Faf du Plessis admitted South Africa were always in trouble after limping to 34-2 in the six power-play overs.
“It’s important to get a good start in the power play,” he said. “We lost too many wickets and it’s always difficult to recover.”
Opening batsman Quinton de Kock, who made 41, was the only South Africa batsman to shine. The 21-year-old left-hander saw his more experienced teammates fall cheaply before he was sixth man out with the total on 81.
Australia won the series 2-0, with the first match rained off, and move onto the World Twenty20 in Bangladesh as one of the favorites for the tournament.
“Obviously the conditions in Bangladesh will be difficult, but we’ll take some confidence into the World T20,” said captain George Bailey, who praised his bowlers for a “fantastic” performance.
Batting conditions were not easy on a pitch that had spent much of the previous two weeks under cover because of almost continuous rain. The wicket was slow, but offered movement for the seamers and turn for the spinners.
Starc was well backed up by off-spinner Glenn Maxwell, who took 2-19, and veteran left-arm spinner Brad Hogg, who claimed the key wickets of De Kock and A.B. de Villiers at a cost of 31 runs.
Australia got off to a rapid start, with Finch and Cameron White putting on 43 for the first wicket before White slashed Wayne Parnell to third man off the fifth ball of the fifth over.
Australia were already well ahead of the South Africa scoring rate and kept the score moving quickly despite a good spell by leg-spinner Imran Tahir, who took 2-21 in his four overs.
Tahir dismissed Finch, who made his 39 off 27 deliveries, and Watson, whose 35 was scored off 28 deliveries. They were deceived by the flight and were caught going for big hits.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB