A magnificent unbeaten century from a cramping A.B. de Villiers carried South Africa to a seven-wicket victory over Australia in the second game of a one-day international (ODI) triangular series on Wednesday.
De Villiers overcame fatigue and severe cramp in his left leg to hit 136 not out as South Africa chased down a target of 328 with 20 balls to spare.
The South Africa captain was brilliantly supported by Faf du Plessis, who scored his maiden one-day ton as he contributed 106 in a 206-run partnership for the third wicket.
Photo: AFP
South Africa’s task seemed formidable when they lost openers Hashim Amla and Quinton de Kock with just 54 runs on the board, but De Villiers and Du Plessis made it look easy.
As the pitch flattened out under the afternoon sun, the pair dispatched Australia’s pace-heavy attack to all corners as they scored at more than seven runs per over.
Although Du Plessis fell to Mitchell Starc shortly after reaching his landmark, by that stage South Africa required less than a run a ball and J.P. Duminy stroked an unbeaten 33 to aid the limping De Villiers.
While Australia were left to regret the two chances that they gave to De Villiers — he was put down on 78 and 85 — their decision to leave out specialist spinner Nathan Lyon also looked ill-advised.
“We were all quite surprised by that,” De Villiers said. “On the other hand, on a wicket that has a bit of moisture in it, if they only play six batters then we could run through them so that’s probably the way they looked at it — they wanted to make sure they had enough batting.”
“Looking back now, they probably would have played Nathan,” he added.
Imran Tahir was certainly able to hold up the Australia innings with his legspin, breaking a 92-run opening stand when he dismissed Phillip Hughes for 51 and following it up with the wicket of Mitchell Marsh.
Tahir finished with figures of 2-45 from his 10 overs despite a robust century from opener Aaron Finch, whose 102 helped Australia to a total of 327-7.
Finch’s third ODI hundred of the year was well supported by Hughes and stand-in captain George Bailey, who continued to lead Australia in the absence of the injured Michael Clarke and made 66.
However, once the 114-run partnership between Finch and Bailey was broken by Ryan McLaren, Australia struggled to fully cash in on their strong start.
Morne Morkel dismissed both Bailey and Glenn Maxwell, which limited the damage done in the last 10 overs to cameos from Steve Smith and Mitchell Johnson.
That meant that South Africa were ultimately able to cruise the chase.
“I certainly think [327] could have been enough, but knowing that it’s a pretty good wicket and only having four [fielders] out and two new balls, it’s always going to be a challenge,” Bailey said.
“You’ve got to keep trying to find a way to take wickets and unfortunately we couldn’t do that,” he added.
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