Breetzke and Stubbs take South Africa to 277 as Zampa and Marnus Labuschagne took five wickets between them.
Breetzke and Stubbs shine but South Africa slide to 277.
After four games and a fourth consecutive half-century, Matthew Breetzke is still the top run-scorer and ODI cricket’s best batting rookie. He laid a strong foundation for South Africa in Mackay by sharing an 89-run fourth-wicket stand with Tristan Stubbs, who reached fifty for the first time in 16 international innings.
However, their building did not go as planned since South Africa was kept below 280 by Australia’s spinners, who led a strangling in the final 10 overs. From 233 for 5 at the beginning of the 41st over to 264 for 9 in the 46th over, South Africa lost four wickets for 31 runs in 35 deliveries. They were bowled out with five balls remaining and will look at some of their late innings shots selection as an area for improvement.
Three spinners were among the seven bowlers used by Australia. Travis Head, Adam Zampa, and Marnus Labuschagne bowled 17 overs for 94 runs and claimed five wickets between them. With a 2 for 46 record, Nathan Ellis was the most impressive seamer, while Xavier Bartlett performed admirably up front while Ben Dwarshuis was rested.
Bartlett opened the bowling and had early success in his third ODI. He was chipped to midwicket for a fourth-ball duck by stand-in skipper Aiden Markram. When leading the team, Markram averages 24.28, whereas when not in command, he averages 40.63. After recovering from a hamstring injury, normal captain Temba Bavuma’s workload is being limited, thus he was asked to take the lead.
Excellent, proactive run-scoring was combined with keeping the bowlers interested by Breetzke and de Zorzi. While de Zorzi managed to drag a half-volley just short of midwicket, Breetzke charged Bartlett and top-edged a bouncer over Inglis. When de Zorzi ended a promising innings by giving Zampa a straightforward return catch off a leading edge, their partnership reached 67.
After Stubbs failed to score a boundary for five overs, Breetzke reached a fifty off of 46 balls, which gave Stubbs time to calm down. When he hit a Zampa googly over midwicket for six, he began to resemble the Stubbs before the slump, and South Africa turned to the spinners as their target bowlers.
Breetzke appeared to be headed for a century after pulling well throughout his innings, but he was unable to control his shot off Ellis, which ended up hitting Alex Carey at deep square leg. Similar to this, Dewald Brevis pulled an Ellis short ball to Cameron Green at deep square, leaving the lower middle-order in South Africa with much to do.
With a single off Labuschagne, Stubbs reached his first fifty in 16 innings in all formats. Wiaan Mulder was a fine companion, though he might have been out for three.
Marsh decided to keep Labuschagne on after Mulder slog swept him to Green at long-on. Senuran Muthusamy hit Hardie at deep midwicket with a full toss in his subsequent over.
After Stubbs skied Zampa to midwicket and Nandre Burger holed out to long-off, where Green made his fourth catch of the day to tie Australia’s record for most in an innings, South Africa’s dubious shot selection continued.
South Africa reached the final over, although not the end of their allocated fifty overs, thanks to an undefeated 22 off 24 balls from Keshav Maharaj. At the beginning of the last over, Hazlewood bowled Lungi Ngidi, who had not taken a wicket in three ODIs and 199 balls prior to this.