Key events
19th over: Australia 81-3 (Green 27, Inglis 28) Muthusamy now on from Maharaj’s end, looking to continue the other spinner’s tidy work while saving some of his overs for later. Does the job, conceding three singles.
18th over: Australia 78-3 (Green 26, Inglis 26) Since spin seems to be working, Aiden Markram brings himself on. It’s not as easy as Maharaj makes it look though. Getting a slightly short ball, Inglis plays a powerful reverse for four, then a wide plus some singles equal nine from the over.
Australia need 200 from 192.
17th over: Australia 69-3 (Green 24, Inglis 20) A drinks break, then more Maharaj. The holding pattern continues. Three singles, Green walking down at the bowler after moving back to a previous delivery. Trying to break up the pattern.
16th over: Australia 66-3 (Green 22, Inglis 19) Time for more left-arm spin, from Muthusamy. Interesting bowler, strange jerky action, really shoulders the ball down the other end. The Aussies just have a look at him first up, three singles.
15th over: Australia 63-3 (Green 20, Inglis 18) Green finds the first boundary from Maharaj, just short enough to cut and placed correctly to beat the field. Still, 13 from 4 overs is good going for the spinner.
14th over: Australia 56-3 (Green 14, Inglis 17) Finally Inglis has a swing, getting Mulder over mid on. Then nearly plays on next ball, inward movement, inside edge past his leg stump. Gets a lucky two. Nothing lucky about the next shot though! That’s the one that got him out in Barbados, the lean-back pull, but tonight he nails it for six. Out of nowhere, a big over for Australia netting them 12.
13th over: Australia 44-3 (Green 14, Inglis 5) Maharaj keeps skidding the ball in at the stumps, very straight, very accurate. Green starts trying to use his feet to break that up, but it’s an over giving up three singles.
Australia need 234 from 222 balls.
12th over: Australia 41-3 (Green 13, Inglis 3) Now it’s Inglis taking a turn for a block-a-thon, trying nothing against Mulder until the last ball, tucked away for one.
11th over: Australia 40-3 (Green 13, Inglis 2) Maharaj keeps the bag over the Australian head. Attacking the stumps, making them anxious, Green blots out five balls after an initial Inglis run. The required rate is up past a run a ball now.
10th over: Australia 39-3 (Green 13, Inglis 1) Josh Inglis is next, who has played so well for Australia since 2023 but has had a very dry run just lately, since his Test outing in Barbados. Gets away here with the carve behind point but there’s protection back. Two runs from the Mulder over, and 39 from the first ten. The lid is firmly on.
WICKET! Marsh c sub (Bosch) b Mulder 18, Australia 38-3
Table of Contents
- WICKET! Marsh c sub (Bosch) b Mulder 18, Australia 38-3
- WICKET! Labuschagne c Rickelton b Ngidi 1, Australia 7-2
- WICKET! Head c Markram b Burger 6, Australia 6-1
- South Africa 277
- WICKET! Ngidi b Hazlewood 1 (South Africa 277)
- WICKET Burger c Green b Zampa 8 (South Africa 264-9)
- WICKET! Stubbs c Green b Zampa (South Africa 245-8)
- WICKET! Muthusamy c Hardie b Labuschagne 4 (South Africa 243-7)
- WICKET! Mulder c Green b Labuschagne 26 (South Africa 233-6)
- WICKET! Brevis c Green b Ellis 1 (South Africa 185-5)
- WICKET! Breetzke c Carey b Ellis 88 (South Africa 179-4)
The bowling change brings the wicket, and Marsh’s recent bogey shot gets him again, the big pick-up shot over the leg side. The line is too wide to play that, when he’s going well he picks it up off his hip, not from off stump. The ball goes up for a simple catch at midwicket on the circle.
9th over: Australia 37-2 (Marsh 18, Green 12) An early turn to spin, with Maharaj, the destroyer from the other night. The Aussies are very watchful here, poking a couple of singles.
8th over: Australia 35-2 (Marsh 17, Green 11) Square drive four from Green, standing up tall even for him, hitting it square, then follows up with another drive further in front of square, through the covers.
7th over: Australia 27-2 (Marsh 17, Green 3) Oh, no. Stubbs puts down another one. At cover this time. Straight to him from Marsh, not taken, and Burger this time is the bowler who is let down. Marsh makes the most of it with another off-drive four.
6th over: Australia 22-2 (Marsh 13, Green 2) Marsh decides it’s time to keep throwing the bat. Another boundary sliced over the cordon, a third without great timing over mid on, but enough power to trickle into the rope. Ngidi the bowler.
5th over: Australia 11-2 (Marsh 4, Green 0) After four overs, suddenly Mitchell Marsh is away! Smokes a cover drive for four off Burger.
4th over: Australia 7-2 (Marsh 0, Green 0) And Green is dropped first ball! Ngidi drops to his knees and presses his head to the ground, though he comes up laughing. It would have been a good take had Stubbs done it. Full and wide, Green throws the drive at it, edged low near the toe and flying wide of second slip. Stubbs throws himself to his right and gets two hands near the ball but knocks it away. Very much catchable for a top fielder, would have been a good catch rather than a screamer.
WICKET! Labuschagne c Rickelton b Ngidi 1, Australia 7-2
That one run is all that Labuschagne will get. The same way he’s been getting out in the Tests, goes at one wide outside off stump, and Ngidi gets the ball to shape away and seam away off the pitch. Big drive rather than a defensive push, but the nick behind is there.
3rd over: Australia 7-1 (Marsh 0, Labuschagne 1) Just the single steered behind point by Labuschagne to add to the over, after Head had smacked the first ball over cover and got out to the second.
WICKET! Head c Markram b Burger 6, Australia 6-1
That’s ugly. Head has been completely out of sorts through this whole white-ball series, and again today. Weight going nowhere, leaning back, cramped for room, as he tries to smear a drive down the ground from a ball angled into his pads. The loft goes up rather than across, and Markram at mid on gets under it just outside the circle.
2nd over: Australia 2-0 (Head 2, Marsh 0) Ngidi causing trouble, has Head skewing one ball up to drop near cover, then clipping another near midwicket, two near catches in two balls. Head gets off strike with a fumble from the latter on the bounce. It’s the only run, as Marsh defends Ngidi.
1st over: Australia 1-0 (Head 1, Marsh 0) Don’t fear, that score is one run for no wicket, for our Australian readers – we go global style here. Nasty quick first over from Nandre Burger, who squashes Travis Head’s gloves with a bouncer deflected for one run, which is the only score.
Geoff Lemon
Thank you, Jeans Pants Howcroft. Interesting day out for the Australian bowlers, with President Bartlett the future prospect they’re most excited about, and Adam Zampa continuing to be targeted by South Africa although he took the important wickets of set players. On we go.
Jonathan Howcroft
To see if 277 is, in fact, par, I’ll hand you over to Geoff Lemon. Thanks for your company.
South Africa 277
An innings that fluctuated wildly ends with South Africa closing on what feels like a par score of 277.
After losing two early wickets to the recalled Xavier Bartlett (2/45) the Proteas must have feared they would not get close to a total this sizeable, but then at 179-3 in the 31st over it must have been assumed that a score in excess of 300 was on the cards.
The Mackay surface favoured spin and off-pace bowling more than raw speed, which meant Mitch Marsh leaned heavily on Nathan Ellis (2/46) and Adam Zampa (3/63). Marsh auditioned seven bowlers, including Marnus Labuschagne, who rewarded him with a couple of textbook burgled wickets in his spell of 2/19 from five overs. Aaron Hardie’s four-overs did not further his claims for continued selection, while Josh Hazlewood was also below par. Although he is not yet fit to bowl Cameron Green still caught the eye with four catches in the deep.
For South Africa it’s a case of what might have been. Tony de Zorzi (38) looked formidable until he went too hard too soon at Zampa. Matthew Breetzke top scored with 88, in the process becoming the man with the highest number of runs in his first four ODIs. but when he perished South Africa stalled badly. Tristan Stubbs battled to 74 but support around him came and went as 179/3 became 277 all out.
WICKET! Ngidi b Hazlewood 1 (South Africa 277)
It might not have been Hazlewood’s day but he’s still capable of hitting the top of off on command. He does just that to castle Ngidi and bring South Africa’s innings to a close.
49th over: South Africa 277-9 (Maharaj 22, Ngidi 1) Bartlett will bowl the penultimate over of the innings. Maharaj takes the single from the third delivery. Ngidi ducks under a bouncer then gets off the mark with a flick off his pads. What can Maharaj do? Only drill a low drive straight back to the bowler who fields neatly.
48th over: South Africa 275-9 (Maharaj 21, Ngidi 0) Hazlewood returns to mop up the tail – but the big quick is paddle scooped for four by Maharaj! That was an unexpected shot, and it came off the batter’s right thumb, with his eyes scrunched tight! A succession of plays and misses follow until Hazlewood concedes a marginal wide outside off, with salt rubbed into the wound next ball by a neatly whipped pull for four. Australia are then not alert to the match situation and allow Maharaj a single from the final delivery of the over and keep the strike. A rare poor over from Australia. It has not been Hazlewood’s day.
47th over: South Africa 265-9 (Maharaj 12, Ngidi 0) Maharaj declines singles from the first three deliveries of Ellis’s tenth over before belatedly allowing Ngidi the strike. The number 11 competently protects his stumps and allows Maharaj another heave. Ellis, the pick of the home attack, ends with 2/43.
46th over: South Africa 264-9 (Maharaj 11, Ngidi 0) It’s been nip-and-tuck all afternoon but if Australia can keep South Africa under 280 they will be very happy with their work. The Proteas must have expected 300+ at the 30-over mark.
WICKET Burger c Green b Zampa 8 (South Africa 264-9)
Some pretty unconvincing tail-end swishing keeps South Africa moving, until Burger mistimes a lofted drive that Green snaffles running around from long-off. That’s the big lad’s fourth outfield catch for the day. That’s only the eighth time that’s happened in ODIs for Australia.
45th over: South Africa 260-8 (Maharaj 10, Burger 6) Labuschagne will not improve on his two wickets as Ellis replaces him in the attack. Neither Maharaj nor Burger look completely equipped to pick the variations but they scramble three singles between them to keep the scoreboard moving.
44th over: South Africa 257-8 (Maharaj 8, Burger 5) The new batter Burger squirts a couple off the inside edge, then three off the outside, before Maharaj goes downtown and gets just enough on a clean straight hit to clear the jumping giant Green on the rope at long on.
WICKET! Stubbs c Green b Zampa (South Africa 245-8)
Stubbs decides it’s time to kick-on, but he picks the wrong Zampa delivery and can only hoist a moonball that Green handles with aplomb running in from long off. The wheels are coming off for the Proteas late on in Mackay.
43rd over: South Africa 245-7 (Stubbs 74, Maharaj 1) What a spell from Australia’s latest legspin wizard: five overs 2/19. Labuschagne has changed the complexion of South Africa’s attempt to push their score in excess of 300.
WICKET! Muthusamy c Hardie b Labuschagne 4 (South Africa 243-7)
Labuschagne gets a fifth over! AND HE BUYS ANOTHER WICKET! Miraculous stuff from the Aussie all-rounder, floating up a full toss that Muthusamy cracks towards the midwicket fence, where it’s intercepted on the full by the perfectly placed Hardie.
42nd over: South Africa 243-6 (Stubbs 73, Muthusamy 4) It’s legspin from both ends with Zampa accompanying Labuschagne in the attack. Neither batter fancies the tonk so the scoreboard ticks over slowly.
41st over: South Africa 237-6 (Stubbs 69, Muthusamy 2) Labuschagne is tossing the ball up, inviting the big shot, and even landing his wrong’un! Excellent over from the bowling all-rounder. Keep him on skipper!
WICKET! Mulder c Green b Labuschagne 26 (South Africa 233-6)
Labuschagne has talked his way back into the attack, and with figures of 0/13 from three overs, why not? Make that 1/13 from 3.1 as Mulder deposits a length delivery straight to Green’s safe hands at long-on! Australia gambled and they won big. South Africa continue to give away their wickets softly at crucial moments.
40th over: South Africa 233-5 (Stubbs 67, Mulder 26) Hazlewood is proving uncharacteristically costly, gifting Mulder a full toss to drive square for four as South Africa regain momentum ahead of a late dash. 300+ is still on the cards.
39th over: South Africa 225-5 (Stubbs 65, Mulder 20) Excellent white ball bowling from Bartlett, adapting to the conditions and switching from a new-ball burst of line-and-length from over the wicket, to a spell digging the ball in short from around the wicket. Hmmmm, maybe I spoke too soon. After four deliveries worth two runs the final couple go for nine as Mulder steps to leg and carves through point then digs out a fuller deliver that races towards the sight-screen. There’s a leg-side wide in between.
38th over: South Africa 214-5 (Stubbs 64, Mulder 11) Labuschagne must be wondering why he’s been pulled from the attack as he watches Stubbs sashay down the track and whip Hazlewood through midwicket for the first boundary in eight overs. Mulder adds to Marnus’s chagrin by belting a boundary of his own straight past the bowler in his follow through.
37th over: South Africa 204-5 (Stubbs 59, Mulder 6) The man who did the early damage, Bartlett, is back into the thick of things, and Mulder escapes again! This time he pulls in the direction of square-leg where Labuschagne just can’t get his fingers under the dipping ball at the extension of a full-length dive. Like Ellis before him, Bartlett is operating from around the wicket to Stubbs and targeting the batter with short deliveries.
South Africa have stalled since those two quick wickets. Australia have done a very good job reining things in since the 30-over mark.
36th over: South Africa 201-5 (Stubbs 57, Mulder 5) Labuschagne stays on – and he nearly buys a wicket! Mulder rocked back to larrup a long-hop and his sweet connection went straight to Marsh at a shortish midwicket but the power of the shot made it burst through the skipper’s fingers. That was like trying to catch a scud missile. Technically a drop, but more realistically a decent two-run save.
35th over: South Africa 196-5 (Stubbs 55, Mulder 2) Ellis continues, but he has to go through a nine-ball over after conceding a back-foot no-ball from around the wicket, then slanting a free-hit wide across the right-handed Stubbs. Both were marginal calls. The bowler responds by moving over the wicket, only to concede another marginal wide for a bouncer that ends up passing the batter down the legside. Despite all that, South Africa still struggle to get Ellis away.
34th over: South Africa 188-5 (Stubbs 51, Mulder 1) Keeping Zampa back for the business end of proceedings Marsh turns to Labuschagne to buy him a quick over while South Africa regroup, and the feisty Queenslander rewards his skipper, going for just three singles.
WICKET! Brevis c Green b Ellis 1 (South Africa 185-5)
Ellis does it again! Two overs in a row. Two right-handed batters caught in the deep hooking short balls from around the wicket! Ellis’ variations deny his opponents any consistency, so when he slips in that quicker bumper he can catch them off guard.
South Africa’s strong platform now risks going to waste with five down already before the late-over assault.
33rd over: South Africa 185-5 (Stubbs 49)
32nd over: South Africa 184-4 (Stubbs 48, Brevis 1) Zampa continues after drinks and South Africa are predictably circumspect.
WICKET! Breetzke c Carey b Ellis 88 (South Africa 179-4)
Unsurprisingly, Hardie did last just the single over with Ellis switching ends to partner Zampa. His variations prove tough to get away, with just three singles from five deliveries. Ellis then moves from over to around the wicket, aborting his first effort with a poorly timed run-up. Ellis reloads, Breetzke steps to leg, the bowler drops in a skiddy bouncer, the batter aims to pull but can only top edge a skier to the safe hands of Carey at deep square leg! Massive wicket for Australia against the run of play.
Time for a drink.
31st over: South Africa 179-4 (Stubbs 44)
30th over: South Africa 176-3 (Breetzke 87, Stubbs 42) With South Africa starting to move into an ominous position Marsh returns to his key man Zampa. Neither batter looks fully in control, but with the field spread any discomfort is accompanied by little jeopardy. Then when the leg-spinner drops short Breetzke is alert enough to rock back and slap a four straight back over the bowler’s head. The Proteas are building very nicely into this innings.
29th over: South Africa 168-3 (Breetzke 81, Stubbs 40) The bowling rotation continues with Hardie invited back for another spell (presumably one that’s only one over long). It’s an innocuous over that is contributing to an inauspicious match, with a bunch of singles preceding a disdainful clonk over extra cover for four from the increasingly confident Stubbs.
28th over: South Africa 159-3 (Breetzke 79, Stubbs 34) Breetzke now has the most runs of any batter through their opening four ODI innings. He’s passed 50 in all of them, and he’s in sight of his second century. He picks up four more with a sweetly timed flick off middle-and-leg that dispatches Ellis inches short of the long-on rope.
27th over: South Africa 150-3 (Breetzke 74, Stubbs 30) Marsh’s musical chairs continues with Head back into the attack. A couple of singles ease South Africa into the over then Stubbs nails a perfectly executed reverse sweep for four. More singles extend a nice period for the Proteas, who are setting themselves up nicely for a back half assault.
26th over: South Africa 141-3 (Breetzke 72, Stubbs 23) Marsh is now in T20 captaincy mode, rotating his bowlers every over, recalling Ellis to his attack. His first delivery beats the bat with an outswinger, his second traps Stubbs on the crease with one that nips back. There’s a hearty call for LBW but it was likely doing too much and Marsh wisely opts not to review. Two dots become three, then four, the pressure building each delivery. Finally Stubbs rotates strike and Breetzke nurdles a couple behind square on the off side.
25th over: South Africa 138-3 (Breetzke 70, Stubbs 22) Marsh calls on bowler number seven! Marnus Labuschagne is the man, after Head was offered only one over in the attack. South Africa deal in singles, with only one bold stroke from Breetzke threatening to ruffle any feathers but his lofted drive off an outside edge lands safely.
24th over: South Africa 133-3 (Breetzke 68, Stubbs 19) Consecutive boundaries for Breetzke! Neither stroke was particularly pleasing on the eye; the first a dragged sweep, the second a back-foot force through wide mid-on, but they keep the scoreboard moving after accepting a period of rebuilding following the dismissal of de Zorzi.
23rd over: South Africa 121-3 (Breetzke 58, Stubbs 17) Hazlewood takes another breather and Marsh opts for spin from both ends with Head coming on to chuck his darts from around the wicket at the pair of right-handers. He races through his work for the concession of just three singles.
