Kolkata: After suffering some hiccups in an supposedly easy chase, Australia emerged victorious by three wickets against South Africa on Thursday. The Kangaroos were provided a solid start by Travis Head and David Warner as the duo stitched a 60-run partnership for the opening wicket. However, the team lost two wickets in quick succession and were reduced to 61/2. Head (62) was also dismissed on a team total of 106 by Keshav Maharaj and that opened up the game.
Maharaj and Tabraiz Shamsi bowled an impressive spell after that to take wickets at regular intervals. However, the target to defend turned out to be too small for the Proteas bowling unit and the opposition hunted it down with three wickets in hand and 16 balls to spare. Gerald Coetzee and Shamsi picked two wickets each for the bowling team.
Having played good cricket over the last one-and-a-month, South Africa batters faltered against Australia in the first innings of the second semi-final of the ICC World Cup 2023 at the Eden Gardens on Thursday evening. The Proteas batters hustled and bustled to 212 all out with two deliveries to spare.
Opting to bat first, South Africa were in trouble from the very outset. By the 12th over, they were reduced to 24 for four. By that time, they had lost Tamba Bavuma (nought), Quinton de Kock (3), Aiden Markram (10) and Rassie van der Dussen (6).
However, it was Heinrich Klaasen (47) and David Miller, coming in at number 6 added 95 runs for the fifth wicket to wriggle South Africa out of the rut to some extent. It was Miller who notched up his seventh ODI ton with 101 off 116 deliveries. His innings was laced with eight hits to the fences and five over the fences.
Since then, no South African batter could stay in the middle to bail out the team which looked to be a one-sided affair. South Africa, who have won seven league matches, never looked comfortable.
Among the Aussie bowlers, Mitchell Starc and skipper Pat Cummins were the pick, sharing six wickets equally among themselves. Starc, who failed to find his form in the league matches, came back to his own to trouble the Proteas batters. He conceded only 34 runs in the allotted 10 overs. Cummins gave away 51 runs for his three scalps.
Josh Hazlewood played a crucial role with the ball by troubling the batters all through. His figure of 8-3-12-2 is worth praise. Travis Head also claimed a couple of wickets in his five overs to make the contest tilt heavily in favour of the Aussies.
Brief scores: South Africa 212 in 49.4 overs (David Miller 101, Henrich Klaasen 47; Mitchell Starc 3/34, Pat Cummins 3/52, Josh Hazlewood 2/12) vs Australia 215/7 in 47.2 overs (Travis Head 62, Steve Smith 30; Gerald Coetzee 47/2, Tabraiz Shamsi 42/2)
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