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The ODI Cricket World Cup is knocking at the door. After a long four years, the ODI World Cup is starting on October 5 in India. For this, every team is preparing hard for the World Cup.
However, South Africa have welcomed Australia, the five World Cup holders, to play a five-match ODI series. The series started today at Mangaung Oval, where the visitors beat South Africa by three wickets.
Toss: Mitchell Marsh, the captain of Australia, won the toss and opted to bowl first in the first ODI.
Batting Innings of South Africa
As Marsh opted to bowl first, South Africa started their batting innings with Quinton de Kock and the skipper, Temba Bavuma. Unfortunately, the home side batters struggled in the crease as it was not a friendly wicket for batters.
The two openers were very careful between the wickets but couldn’t build a strong partnership. Despite being so defensive, Quinton de Kock lost his wicket to Marcus Stoinis in the 8.2 over.
Australia’s Marcus Stoinis was superb with the ball and provided some outstanding fielding. After taking the wicket of de Kock, he made Van Der Dussen run out in the 11.6 overs.
After that, opener Temba Bavuma tried hard to handle the disaster with Aiden Markram. Together, they picked up 37 runs on the scoreboard. Their partnership was looking good, but Cameroon Green picked up the wicket of Aiden Markram.
However, the rest of the players couldn’t contribute enough as Aussie pacers were brilliant with the ball. The only exception was the captain, Temba Bavuma. While the other batters came and went, the captain fought for his life to get a good result.
He remained unbeaten against Australia, scoring a much-needed century. Relying on the captain’s unbeaten 114, South Africa scored 222 runs before being all out.
Aussie pacer Josh Hazlewood picked up three wickets, while Stoinis got two.
Batting Innings of Australia
Chasing a small target, Australia were under tremendous pressure. Opener David Warner had gone duck as Marco Jansen picked him up in the very first over. After that, Travis Head made a partnership of 37 with Mitchell Marsh. But the two batters failed to survive long.
The captain left the crease with 17 runs, while Head departed the crease after scoring 33. After that, the following three batters failed harshly to contribute to the team. Australia lost three wickets between 38 and 56 runs.
Due to South Africa’s super bowling display, Australia became seven men down within 113 runs. It seemed the home side would win the game. But Marnus Labuschagne changed the entire scenario with Aston Agar. From 113/7, they carried the team until the last. Building a partnership of 112 runs, they successfully chased the target with 58 balls in their hands. Labuschagne scored an unbeaten 80, while Aston Agar remained not out in 48 runs. As a result, Australia chased the target with three wickets in their hand and have taken a 1-0 lead in the five-match ODI series.
