As they entered the final match of a frustrating series, Australia needed a victory to avoid their first ever 5-0 series whitewash.
Could they manage it? No, they could not, going down by 31 runs to round out a humiliating tour.
Here are the ratings from the fifth ODI between South Africa and Australia.
Pride
Grade: A-
The Australians were playing for pride, by far the ICC number one ranked deadly sin that modern cricket sides play for.
Just once, I’d like to see a side 4-0 down in a series declare instead that they were playing for sloth. Or lust. Or gluttony. Ah well, maybe next overseas tour.
In search of this pride they were playing for, Australia chose Joe Mennie, Chris Tremain and Scott Boland as their fast bowlers. The other quick options, John Hastings and Dan Worrall, had instead apparently gone on safari looking for a pride of lions, which feels confused beyond what seems possible.
Nevertheless, the Mennie-Tremain-Boland combination made the fifth different three-man seam bowling attack that Australia had played in the five-game series. Basic combinatorial theory tells us that there are only ten possible ways in which five bowlers can be chosen in a three-man attack. In that sense, then, it’s a shame that this wasn’t a ten game series.
But only in that sense.
Australia’s bowlers
Grade: C
There was a time a few years back when Australian minds boggled at the depth of their fast bowling stocks. Mitchell Johnson, Ryan Harris and Peter Siddle were the mainstays of the bowling attack. But waiting in the wings were Mitchell Starc, James Pattinson, Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Jackson Bird and others who I’ve forgotten because there were so many of them, all with astonishing potential and an even more astonishing proclivity for injury.
But this tour has proven to be the great bowling stock-depth mind-unboggling, with Tremain, Boland, Mennie, Worrall and Hastings all struggling to constrain the South African batsmen. (Click to Tweet)
Given the seam bowlers’ record to date, Australia must have been sorely tempted to open the bowling in this final game with David Warner and Matthew Wade, especially once it was taken into consideration that such a tactic would improve both the attack and the wicket-keeping. A win-win result. Although obviously not in the sense of this team winning a game.
Still, for all the criticism the inexperienced Australian bowlers have attracted on this tour, they’ve never stopped asking questions of the South African batsmen. Unfortunately, most of those questions have tended to be of the form ‘what am I doing here?’, and ‘who else wants a go?’.
So it came as quite the surprise when South Africa stumbled to 3-52, as Mennie bowled both Hashim Amla and Faf du Plessis, while Boland accounted for Quinton de Kock.
Perhaps Hastings had been the problem all along, and now that he’d been removed, the legendary Boland-Tremain-Mennie triple punch would prove too much for South Africa.
Rilee Rossouw
Grade: B+
Unluckily for BolTreMen however, Rilee Roussow and JP Duminy then put on a partnership of 178 runs, to put South Africa on their way to a comfortable 8-327 from their 50 overs.
Rossouw made 122 from 118 balls, to become the fourth South African batsman to make a century this series.
Hard to believe, I know. Only four hundreds by the South Africans? It felt like way more than that.
David Warner
Grade: C+
In pursuit of the 328 needed for victory, Warner batted extraordinarily well, smashing more than half of the runs on his own as he made 173 from 136 balls, before becoming the ninth wicket to fall.
Unfortunately for Warner, he undid all his good work by allowing himself to be run out by Imran Tahir while desperately scrambling for a second run to keep the strike in the dying overs of the game.
There’s a lot of talk from commentators about ‘cardinal sins’ in the game. This talk is usually nonsense about not batting out the 50 overs, or failing to ground your bat when taking a quick single. Or teams playing for sloth.
But giving Tahir an excuse to indulge in one of his patented, crazed wicket-celebrations after he’s already bowled out his ten overs must surely be the gravest sin of them all.
All other Australian batsmen
Grade: D-
Still, we shouldn’t be too harsh on Warner. Given that he outscored the rest of the batsmen combined by 65 runs, and for one fewer demise at the hands of the maddeningly delighted Tahir, fingers must instead be pointed elsewhere.
Obviously, we could point them at the Proteas, who once again played an attack of proper bowlers, for reasons known only to themselves.
But personally, I’m pointing my finger at Shane Watson. Just for old time’s sake.
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