Skipper Faf unable to save sloppy SA

Australia tie series with five wicket win as Proteas’ bowlers drop ball

IF the Proteas are to mount a challenge for the T20 World Cup in India this month, they need to learn to win when they put themselves in winning positions batting first.

Sloppy fumbles, untidy wides, gratuitous extras and wobbly throws from the deep combined to hand Australia a series-tying five wicket victory over South Africa at the Wanderers with the Newlands game to go.

Captain Faf du Plessis’s 79 off 41 balls set matters up to be different but the bowlers, bar Kagiso Rabada and Dale Steyn, dropped the ball.

South Africa began tidily enough, even after John Hastings stalked and succeeded in getting AB de Villiers out early.

In theory, the De Villiers experiment at the top of the order sounds good, but is it not perhaps having strawberry cheese cake for breakfast? Opening is an art and Hashim Amla is the Andrew Lloyd Webber in a world of instant gratification and Justin Bieber.

Nonetheless, Quinton de Kock can always be relied upon to up the tempo, which he did after De Villiers departed.

He then took on Josh Hazlewood, dispatching him for a couple of boundaries, before making a mess of Glenn Maxwell’s offbreaks with a hat-trick of fours in the seventh over.

But the fun stopped when James Faulkner arrowed a full toss into the left-hander’s stumps, dismissing De Kock six runs short of a deserved 50.

Du Plessis was unflustered at the other end. He was ruthless when he needed to be and cleared the long off and long boundaries easier than his teammates. He looped, chipped, dinked, cut and did everything that will be necessary in the pursuit of silverware in India.

Australia’s outstanding work in the outfield also put the skids to South Africa’s innings, but a barbaric late flurry from skipper Du Plessis helped the Proteas put on a competitive 204/7 on this batsman’s haven.

The defence started with the kind of Rabada brilliance we have now become accustomed to. You will struggle to find more accurate, deadlier, yorkers than the Rabada ones that bowled Aaron Finch out in the opening over and Warner at the death.

But it was unclear which was the most awe-inspiring moment of brilliance between that Finch wicket and the one-handed catch on the third man boundary to dismiss Steve Smith.

Hobbling, shaken and holding onto the ropes, Australia needed David Warner (77) and Maxwell (75) to salve the required run rate that had gone past 12 by the end of the power play.

The pair stepped up – each matching Du Plessis’s brutality – and produced a scintillating 161-run fourth wicket partnership that destroyed the souls of David Wiese, Chris Morris and Imran Tahir.

Wiese even had to fetch the ball from the Corlett Drive neighbourhood apartment blocks after Maxwell clobbered him over the scoreboard.

Mitchell Marsh and James Faulkner saw Australia home with a few scurried singles in the end.