The Sunday Mail
South Africa won a first-ever tri-series title against Australia after a Dale Steyn bowling masterclass handed them the advantage and an anchoring innings from Faf du Plessis – which ended just four short of what would have been a fourth century in the series – guided a composed chase.
Steyn’s four wickets, which included two in two balls, led a surge through the Australian middle-order in which South Africa plucked five wickets for 29 runs.
South Africa paced the reply perfectly using du Plessis’ purple patch as the pivot and winning with 9.3 overs remaining. On a pitch that had not been used in the tournament so far, run-scoring remained slow and South Africa chose to use both specialist spinners in their squad. Aaron Phangiso and Imran Tahir squeezed Australia and gave away just 76 runs in their 20 overs but the wickets came from the pace spearhead.
Steyn found movement early on and reverse-swing by the half-way stage.
Australia could not muster anything similar, nor could they find a way to dislodge du Plessis who eventually fell searching for his milestone.
Movement was on offer from the outset but it did not account for the initial breakthrough because Phillip Hughes overeagerness to show aggression did.
He hit the first ball of Steyn’s third over hard but AB de Villiers had moved himself out of slip and to short cover, where he collected a stinger.
Similarly, after Wayne Parnell’s opening over cost nine runs, Steve Smith tried to take the left-armer on and top-edged a pull that ballooned straight up for David Miller to take the catch coming in from mid-on.
South Africa introduced spin as soon as the Powerplay was complete and they enforced a stranglehold.
The next 10 overs brought only 34 runs as Phangiso found bounce and Tahir used the googly to good effect.
Ultimately, it was Tahir’s variation that accounted for George Bailey, who chopped one on as he failed to pick the wrong ‘un.
Australia needed a batsman to partner Aaron Finch and Mitchell Marsh looked the candidate to do the job when he got on top of a Morkel short ball but he also found the going tough.
The strike was seldom rotated, although it was to give Finch his third fifty of the tournament and Australia were stuck when Steyn’s second spell launched in full swing, literally.
Finch’s growing unease was exposed when Steyn ripped through the bat-pad gap and wrenched the stumps from the ground. With his next ball, Steyn trapped Glenn Maxwell on the back-foot to open Australia up.
After a six off Tahir, Marsh’s threat was also blunted when he inside-edged a Parnell delivery onto his stumps in the over before the Powerplat, leaving the lower-middle-order with a big job.
They could not complete it after Steyn tapped Haddin on the back foot and Morkel had Mitchell Johnson was caught on the boundary.
Australia were 144 for nine with 12 overs remaining and in danger of totalling less than their lowest score of the series – 209 for nine when they lost to Zimbabwe – but James Faulkner had other ideas.
His first task was to bat out overs and he employed an industrious approach with Mitchell Starc for seven in which they added only 23 runs.
Once the last five overs dawned, the pair pushed.
Starc cleared long-on off Phangiso, Steyn’s final over cost 13 runs with Faulkner hitting him to cow corner and extra cove and Australia inched over 200.
Fifty runs came off the last five overs to give Australia’s bowlers something to work with but they to dig holes in South Africa’s line-up early and often. – ESPNcricinfo.
