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It might have been reduced to a 10-over match but last night’s one-off T20I still had significance in that it continued a horrendous eight months of cricket for Australia as they lost to South Africa on the Gold Coast.
Set 109 to win from 10 overs Australia could manage only 7-87 in reply due to a mix of shoddy batting and some clinical bowling from the ever-impressive Proteas.
Australia have now won just five of their last 24 matches across all formats starting from the second Test in South Africa in March.
The Aussies entered that second Test in Port Elizabeth in great form, having won six of their past seven Tests.
They also were on a roll in T20Is at that time, with seven wins from their previous eight matches, including a dominant performance in the tri-series against England and New Zealand.
From that second Test onwards, however, Australian cricket has descended deep into the abyss.
They have gone winless in five Tests, have claimed victory in just one of eight ODIs, and have a 4-7 win-loss record in T20Is, with three of those wins coming against minnow nations in Zimbabwe and the UAE.
A number of those losses, across all formats, have been the result of Australia failing to adapt to foreign conditions.
Not so last night when both their batsmen and their pace-heavy attack got the kind of wicket which is familiar and suitable – a true, bouncy deck with decent pace. That still was not enough.
First their bowlers made life cruisey for the SA batsman by feeding them a banquet of boundary balls.
After three overs SA were 1-42 and Australian skipper Aaron Finch was scrambling for answers. He called for part-timer spinners Glenn Maxwell and D’Arcy Short, who reined things in by combining to take 1-26 from three overs.
The effectiveness of two such modest spinners called into question, once more, the baffling Australian obsession with pace in white ball cricket.
A cursory glance at the T20I bowler rankings would have reminded the Aussie selectors that spinners account for seven of the top eight spots. Spin is the key to T20 cricket, regardless of the type of pitch.
It is puzzling that the Australian selectors continually ignore a truth the rest of the cricketing world long ago acknowledged and acted upon.
Tabraiz Shamsi, an unspectacular T20 spinner, then took 1-12 from two overs just to give the selectors one last elbow in the ribs.
Quicks Lungi Ngidi (2-16 from two overs) and Chris Morris (2-12 from two overs) were also excellent for the Proteas. But the visitors were aided by some ungainly batting.
Finch continued his recent rough trot in white ball cricket for Australia, lurching around the crease impatiently before being clean bowled as he charged Ngidi.
Soon after D’Arcy Short belted a half volley straight to cover, Marcus Stoinis sliced the ball to point, Ben McDermott ramped the ball into the gloves of wicketkeeper Quentin de Kock, and Alex Carey chipped Shamsi straight to long off.
The only member of Australia’s top seven dismissed by a good ball was Lynn, who was bowled by a cracking yorker from Morris.
All of these mistakes left Glenn Maxwell carrying the heavy hopes of his team.
He played some nice shots in his knock of 38 from 23 balls but was simply handed too tough a task by his teammates.
This is Australian cricket in a nutshell at the moment – too few being asked to do too much.