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South Africa will need to field a lot better when they take on Australia in the second ODI of their five-match series on Sunday. You can follow the live blog of game at Perth starting 11.20am local time, 2:20pm (AEDT).
AB de Villiers did say at the end of the previous match the side needed to do better in all three departments.
It was an honest assessment of the way things went in the first ODI, what with the South African top-order falling away after the bowlers had allowed the Aussie openers and the lower-middle order to pile on 300 runs in their 50 overs.
What punctured the momentum for South Africa, however, was their fielding performance. Half a dozen chances were missed in the field – most of them off the George Bailey bat – and when that happens, the side is on the back-foot very early in the game.
More vitally, it came from a team that prides itself from its fielding efforts and from cutting 20-25 runs in the field to allowing Bailey four lives and giving him 68 more runs than he should have made, it was a steep decline in their fortunes.
Australia will have questions of their own.
The first of which would be to do with their regular collapses across formats, one of which was on display on Friday.
They were 0/94 at one stage and fell to 5/144 at another. That they were allowed to get to 300 was after the South African fielding unravelled rather quickly but it’s not a problem that Australia will want to take with themselves to the World Cup next year.
The other issue was obviously to do with the Michael Clarke injury. The full extent of it wasn’t revealed at the time but the latest on it is that he has been ruled out of the entire series.
Clarke’s absence may not hit them hard as a batsman given his recent form and that of his replacement, Steven Smith but he is a proven pedigree as far as his leadership is concerned. It will be interesting to see whether George Bailey can get as much out of tough situations as he did in the first game.
Australia had gone into the previous game with Shane Watson, Mitchell Marsh and Glenn Maxwell expected to make up 20 overs and they went for 130 from the 18 they bowled. South Africa will look to take them on yet again.
As far as the team line-ups are concerned, Australia will look to make that one forced change alone – Steven Smith replacing Clarke.
South Africa will need to think about their line-up too. Ryan McLaren is playing as an all-rounder but his struggles against the short ball have been well-chronicled. He went for 63 from his nine too.
Farhaan Behardien was picked up ahead of Rilee Rossouw and hurt his shoulder in the field. He looked fit enough when he batted but Rossouw’s good form in the T20Is could have carved up an opening for him.
Join me for this second ODI between Australia and South Africa on Sunday here and you can follow the live score of this game from 2:20pm (AEDT) and post your comments in the section below.
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