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A comprehensive win in the end. Australia restricted South Africa to 101 in the 20 overs and then scored them off 12.4 for the loss of three wickets.
What makes it an even more excellent showing with the ball is that South Africa weren’t bowled out – they just found it next to impossible to score off. The speedsters were excellent, led by Cummins but Boyce added the icing to the cake.
102 was never going to challenge them. And Finch’s unbeaten 44 saw to it.
So we now head to the Sydney Cricket Ground where the third and the final T20I will be played on Sunday, the winner takes it all there. Although, that ‘all’ that I am talking of is a T20I series alone.
It wasn’t the best showing by Australia in this format even giving an allowance for the fact that almost half their players weren’t first-choice.
On a flat Adelaide track, they made just 144 and part of the blame needs to be apportioned to the batsmen getting starts but not carrying on to something more substantial.
Cameron White made 24, Aaron Finch scored 14 and Shane Watson top-scored with 47 but at least one of them should have batted through until the end of the stipulated overs. None did.
The other part of the problem was probably related to the line-up itself.
When you go into the game with five frontline batsmen then you better have five experienced batsmen at that. The experience ended at White, Watson and Finch with Ben Dunk and Nathan Reardon, at four and five, making their debuts.
With a line-up like that, an early couple of wickets can push the rest of the batsmen into too defensive a mindset in order to preserve their wickets and there is a good chance the momentum is lost. That’s exactly what happened in the first T20I.
Of course no amount of praise will be a lot for some of the South African death bowling. Yorkers were bowled at will and getting under them became quite a task for the Australian batsmen in the end.
There again, it was surprising to see the lower-middle-order not improvise, move around in the crease, try the ramp shot or do anything else to disturb the bowling, allowing them to stick to their plans. And they stuck to them wonderfully, especially Kyle Abbott, who ended with figures of 3/21 from four overs.
Come the second match, Australia have already decided they need Glenn Maxwell to beef up their side and he will walk into the playing XI.
Also waiting in the ranks is Nic Maddinson but it remains to be seen whether the selectors will look to discard Reardon after just one game or if they bring in Maxwell for one of the bowlers.
South Africa played 19-year-old Kagiso Rabada in his first game and while he conceded 27 from his three, he looked the goods. There’s Marchant de Lange who could come in for him if the selectors want to look at others as well.
The visitors will be pleased with the way Rilee Rossouw returned back to runs after having scored just 63 runs from his first six ODIs.
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