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Australia have edged out South Africa in a nail-biter to claim the series.
So that’s that, end of the T20I series. Two one-sided games shared to begin with and then a closely-fought third one on a slowish track. 145 looked under-par tonight but it did go the distance, with Australia winning with a ball to spare.
Cameron White has won the man-of-the-match award while James Faulkner has clinched the man-of-the-series prize.
A comprehensive showing by Australia helped them level the T20I series against South Africa and they will hope to carry that momentum into the third and the final game of the series. Join The Roar for live scores and coverage starting from 7:35pm (AEDT).
To be frank, in a game of T20I, it’s not as much about momentum as it is about how well you play on the given day. This theory was on show in the previous game as well when South Africa who had come off a convincing win from the first game, were proved to be wanting on a quicker, bouncier MCG deck.
So much so that despite losing just seven wickets, South Africa scored just 101 runs after having won the toss and deciding to bat first. First it was Doug Bollinger who controlled the run-flow and then James Faulkner, Pat Cummins and Cameron Boyce chipped in with their own bowling efforts to ensure South Africa would never get away from them.
So when South Africa were expected to get a move after scoring just 51/3 in the first 10 overs, they scraped through to just another 50 runs from the next 10.
Lot of credit to Cameron Boyce. The leggie, who was only in his third international for Australia, had figures of 2/15 from his four. His figures were a more than fair reflection of his spell – the South African batsmen looked a confused lot about whether to work him from the crease or to step out.
As far as the selection is concerned, Australia seem to have got their balance right after bringing in Glenn Maxwell for the previous one in place of Ben Cutting. The question for the selectors now is whether they will want to get someone like Nic Maddinson into the line-up after having not got a chance at all here.
South Africa could look at Marchant de Lange in place of Kagiso Rabada even as Ryan McLaren tries to justify his role in the team in T20I cricket. Robin Peterson or David Wiese are the other two options for South Africa.
In the first game, the shoe was on the other foot. It was the South African bowlers who were doing all the stifling and the Aussies struggled to get momentum in their innings batting first.
With South Africa also finding life difficult batting first, there’s a good chance that the team winning the toss might want to chase down a target this time.
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