David Miller
struck his first international fifty since February last year and his
career-best T20I score to guide South Africa to the highest successful
chase at Kingsmead and a lead in the three-match series against
Australia. Miller's return to form came at an opportune time - South
Africa were 95 for 6 in their reply and needed a lower-order surge to
ensure their efforts with the ball were not wasted.
On a dry, cracked pitch, they pulled Australia back in an innings that was destined for over 200. Imran Tahir
led the strangle to pull Australia back from 69 for 1 in the PowerPlay.
South Africa took 6 for 45 between the sixth and 16th over and not even
Mitchell Marsh's cameo at the end gave Australia enough to defend.
[South Africa 158 for 7 (Miller 53*, du Plessis 40, Coulter-Nile 3-29) beat Australia 157 for 9 (Finch 40, Tahir 3-21) by three wickets]
Neither side will be entirely happy with their batting performance but
Australia will have cause to question their composition more. For the
first time in T20I cricket, they chose to bat David Warner down the
order and used Aaron Finch and Usman Khawaja upfront and may reconsider
that going forward.
Finch's aggression was obvious was from the start. He took on Kagiso
Rabada in his opening two overs but South Africa regained some control
when Rabada removed Usman Khawaja.
Instead of keep Rabada on, du Plessis gave the ball to JP Duminy and
Finch had a field day. He sent the first three balls for six over deep
midwicket and the fourth delivery bounced just a few metres short of the
deep cover rope. Duminy's over cost 24 runs and gave the early
advantage to Australia.
Chris Morris did not fare too much better with an opening over of 15, as
he veered between short and full and Warner used placement over power
to cash in. David Wiese, who could have bowled with the fielding
restrictions in place, was brought on immediately after they were lifted
and had success by having Warner caught at backward point to stem the
tide. Imran Tahir, who could also have bowled in that period if du
Plessis felt he needed spin, came on in the next over and had Finch
caught off a full toss to remove the biggest threat.