The first match of the Super 12 stage took place at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi on Saturday. The Aussies started their actual campaign against the Proteas and defeated them in a low-scoring thriller encounter.
It was a warm day in Abu Dhabi and the grass was even and the bowlers were expected to be fatal during the initial overs of bowling looking at the pitch. With some great batsmen and bowlers of the present age of cricket, both the teams were seen to be dangerous.
Winning the toss the Australian skipper Aeron Finch decided to bowl first. South Africa somehow posted a score of 118/9 in their 20 overs with the bat which was chased down later in style by the Aussies with two balls remaining.
Now, let us have a look at the data and analyze a few key aspects of the first match of Super 12.
A pale day with the bat for the Proteas
Temba Bhuma and Quinton De Kock started with the batting for the Proteas while the Aussie pacer Mitchel Starc started with the bowl for his team. The first bowl of the Super 12 was thus bowled and with 13 runs from the first over, the South African fans were seen to be delighted with the start.
Maxwell took the bowl after that and it was during the 9th bowl of the innings when Temba fall prey to Maxwell and was bowled mercilessly. Post that no batsman from South Africa was able to stay at the wicket and thus wickets were falling at one end in regular intervals.
Aiden Markram played a sensible inning with the bat at the lower middle order for South Africa, and he made it possible when all batsmen failed to build a partnership with one another.
The Aussie bowlers were specifically superb with the bowl. Each of them restricted the opponent to play shots around and bowled beautifully and with a plan.
Finch brought five bowlers into the action and each bowling their quota of four overs of economic bowling took one or two wickets. Josh Hazlewood, Adam Zampa, and Mitchell Starc each took two wickets while Maxwell and Pat Cummins settled with one each while bowling superbly.
The form of the Australian bowlers was at a peak and it was them with some splendid spells of bowling and adapting to the conditions of the pitch which restricted the Proteas within 118/9 after the end of twenty overs.
A successful chase by the Aussies
The Aussie super-openers, David Warner and Aeron Finch, took the guards for their side during the second innings of play, while the extreme Proteas’ pacers Rabadda and Nortje attacked with their initial bowling.
The Aussie openers started very cautiously but unfortunately, Finch fall prey to Nortje during the second over and departed with a duck.
Nortje was bowling exceptionally well for the Proteas, he bowled four overs conceding 21 runs and also picking up two important early wickets for his team.
At a time Australia was 38/3 during the 8th over and were looking pretty sluggish while Steve Smith with a responsible knock of 35 runs from 34 balls stabilized the batting side while nearing the target.
Post that Marcus Stoinis with an unbeaten 24 runs of just 16 bowls and ended the match with a four to win for the Aussies. On the other side, it was Mathew Wade with a sensible and important 15 runs which helped Australia to reach their target comfortably. Australia at the end of 19.4 overs scored 121 and won by five wickets in hand.
The bowlers from Proteas tried their level best to change the course of the match towards them. The pitch was quite responsive to the variations put across by the pacers and if they had a few more runs on the board things could have been different.