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Australia copped a Twenty20 wake-up call at Adelaide Oval last night when they were comfortably beaten by seven wickets by a South African line-up that was missing AB de Villiers, Hashim Amla, Faf du Plessis, Dale Steyn and Vernon Philander.
Despite missing such world-class talent, the South Africans out-bowled, out-batted and out-fielded the Australians in front of a healthy 25,370 crowd.
Those in the stands had little to cheer about, aside from Shane Watson and James Faulkner’s batting, plus the bowling of leggie Cameron Boyce and paceman Pat Cummins.
Watson was filthy with himself when he holed out in the overs after a well-compiled 47 that strangely didn’t include any fours, but three sixes.
While he and Faulkner were putting together a handy 57-run partnership in seven overs, it looked as though the Australians could post a defendable 160-plus,
But with Watson’s dismissal the rest of the order could only manage 145 – and that was never going to be enough against the South Africans.
The mere fact Australia couldn’t score one boundary in the final 26 deliveries underlined how little the tag wagged.
But the damage was done earlier when skipper Aaron Finch, Cameron White, debutant Ben Dunk, and Watson all holed out forcing the pace, while another debutant, Nathan Reardon, had his attempted uppercut hauled in by leaping keeper Quinton de Kock.
They were baseball shots, not treating deliveries on their merit.
Twenty20 cricket is simple. There are 120 deliveries, and ticking the scoreboard over is a must while despatching bad deliveries into, or over, the ropes.
Adelaide was a belter of a batting wicket, and the South African bowlers were really professional in bowling a tight line and length that frustrated the Australians into playing baseball shots to keep the scoreboard attendants busy.
That’s what Bobby Simpson and Bill Lawry would have done, without peers as a combination running between wickets.
But the attendants were kept busy for the wrong reasons, regularly replacing the Australian batsmen’s names in the not out space.
South Africa’s opening bowler Kyle Abbott deserved man-of-the-match honours for his 3-21 off his four overs, but teammate Rilee Rossouw was given the honour for his 78 off 50 deliveries, with seven fours and three sixes.
Reardon dropped him on seven off the bowling of Australian opener Doug Bollinger, who had captured the first wicket of Reeza Hendricks off the third ball of the innings. At that time South Africa was 1-0. Hendricks was caught by a diving Ben Dunk.
Dunk is an opening batsman who recently scored an Australian domestic record 229* from just 157 deliveries against Queensland in a 50-over game at North Sydney Oval. The knock included 15 fours and a record 13 sixes.
But Dunk batted at four last night behind Finch, White and Watson – which was well out of position for the left-hander.
The order should have been Finch, Dunk, Watson and White, especially as Australia batted first after winning the toss.
The mistake was magnified by poor batting, with the exception of Watson and Faulkner who finished unbeaten on 41.
But the Australian bowling pluses belonged to leggie Boyce, with 1-31 off his four, but more so with Cummins’ 1-21. He was constantly around the 140 mark, and though we mightn’t see him get back to the 150-plus speed that caused his spate of injuries, Cummins is still slippery.
Cameron Boyce and Pat Cummins will be crucial in future Australian attacks.
The series moves to the MCG on Friday night, with Australia forced to make some changes.