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Australia have gone to the top of the table in the ODI Tri-Series with a 36-run victory over South Africa in the second match played between the two sides.
REPORT: WARNER’S WINNING KNOCK SEES AUSSIES BEAT PROTEAS
Final score
Australia 6/288
South Africa 252
Australia will be gunning to avenge their previous defeat at the hands of South Africa when the two teams meet in the fourth game of their tri-series in the West Indies. You can follow the live scores and blog of this match here on The Roar from 3am AEST.
It all seemed to be going downhill for South Africa two games into the competition.
They went down to the hosts West Indies after collapsing spectacularly in their opener. The South African batsmen, bar Rilee Rossouw struggled to make any sort of an impact in that game and then Kieron Pollard took the match away with a swashbuckling half-century.
And when the same West Indian team which had beaten South Africa in the opener capitulated to a thumping loss at the hands of Australia in the second game, the writing looked to be on the wall for the Proteas.
They went into their second match against Australia as outsiders by some distance and when they slumped to 6/112 at one stage, things seemed to be going according to the script. On a tough pitch, however, Farhan Behaardien played one of his best international innings – if not the best – and rescued them through to 189 from their 50 overs.
And then the South African spinners, Imran Tahir, Aaron Phangiso and Tabraiz Shamsi combined to finish with figures of 5/101 from their 21.2 overs to set up an excellent bonus-point win for the South Africans. Kagiso Rabada chipped in with three wickets of his own.
Coming into this fourth game of the series and the first of this second leg as the action moves to Basterre, the one thing that could change is the nature of the pitches on offer. The ones for the first leg at Guyana offered a lot of assistance for the spinners, even forcing captains to play two or three spinners and get their part-timers on as well.
By some accounts, this will be a better pitch to bat, which could dictate the playing XIs for both teams. One of Nathan Lyon and Adam Zampa could be benched while carrying all three spinners could be a luxury that South Africa might discard.
Batting will be easier while there could be a lot more help for the seamers too, which should bring Mitchell Starc back into the reckoning for the Aussies. Starc was rested from the previous game.
South Africa have also lost Rossouw to an injury but Faf du Plessis seems to have recovered from his injury while Dean Elgar has been called up to the squad to try and shore up their batting.
David Warner, Aaron Finch and Steven Smith will all be gunning for a lot more time at the crease, South Africa will need the likes of Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers to lead from the front as far as their batting is concerned.
You can follow the live scores and blog of this match here on The Roar from 3am AEST.
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