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7th over: South Africa 57-3 (Brevis 12, Stubbs 0) So that Maxwell over began with a miscued six from Brevis that just limped over the rope down the ground, then Maxwell conceded one more run from the next five balls. Figures of 2 for 20 from three, you’ll take that from your spinner with two overs in the Powerplay!
WICKET! Pretorius st Carey b Maxwell 10, SA 57-3
Well, what on God’s green earth was that? There were signs of this the other night, but tonight backs it up. Pretorius is a young player and a has a reputation as a fearsome striker, but he’s a sloppy cricketer at this stage of his career. Whether being heavyset is the reason or not, he’s slow across the ground. He didn’t put in effort in the field the other night. In this over he’s almost run out taking a sharp second that a modern T20 player should be taking every time. Then, fifth ball of the over, he comes wandering down at Maxwell, is beaten by the ball, and just gives up. Stands there out of his ground, slowly turns around, doesn’t even move towards the batting crease. In the meantime, Carey has fumbled the stumping. Drops the ball, it rolls towards square leg. And as Pretorius stares mutely on, Carey crawls after it, scrambles it back into his gloves, and launches into the stumps. Stumped, with no effort at all to avoid it. That’s just not good enough, in any form of cricket.
6th over: South Africa 50-2 (Pretorius 10, Brevis 5) Something early for Brevis tonight after a brief start to his tournament, he gets a driveable ball from Dwarshuis and sends it to the rope. More importantly, David has hurt his shoulder trying to save the boundary. Lands on it hard while unable to flick the ball back. TV comms talking about the relative worth of risking such good players to save a run here and there, and I tend to agree. Only a single and a leg bye otherwise from the over, another tidy one from Dwarshuis. That’s the Powerplay.
5th over: South Africa 44-2 (Pretorius 10, Brevis 0) No run for Dewald Brevis first ball, as Maxwell closes out the over for 9 runs and a wicket.
WICKET! Markram c Owen b Maxwell 18, SA 44-2
Maxwell to continue, the young Pretorius top edges a sweep, it swirls over fine leg… and dropped! Zampa was circling under it like a puzzled shark, never looked set, and as it comes down he’s craning his neck to work out the angle of the drop. His head isn’t in position, and he spills it. Maxwell is not happy, with two runs conceded as well, and he’s even less happy next ball when Pretorius puts him on the roof. Huge sweep shot, bounces off the corrugated tin. But Maxwell’s mood improves after a single, as Markram skips down, laces an off drive, but hits it flat and straight at mid off. Owen takes the catch.
4th over: South Africa 35-1 (Markram 18, Pretorius 1) Ben Dwarshuis finishes the over tightly, only one run from it along with the wicket.
WICKET! Rickelton c David b Dwarshuis 14, SA 34-1
Swings earlier, but doesn’t swing well enough, Rickelton. Tries to repeat the big shot over the leg side, hits it higher than he does long, and it’s caught at the edge of the circle on the off side.
3rd over: South Africa 32-0 (Markram 18, Rickelton 14) Hazlewood for his second, and he gets crunched! Rickelton spent the first game batting like a busted, but he gets going early tonight, a powerful swing over wide long on. Picks it up off a length and muscles, like he tried to do when Maxwell produced that magic boundary catch to settle the game on Sunday. Rickelton follows up two balls later with four, Hazlewood doesn’t hit the pinch and the full toss is carved behind point. Swaps strike, last ball of the over Markram adds a six! Shorter, pulled, hit clean. Hazlewood beat them on his own last time, but tonight his second over goes for 19.
2nd over: South Africa 13-0 (Markram 12, Rickelton 1) Maxwell to bowl the second over, also as he did the other night. Off-spinner in the Powerplay, tough job, but he does it exceptionally this time. Concedes two runs first ball, then ties down Markram for the next three. Only goes for two more singles in the over. Rushes through it, bowls a tight line, doesn’t give the length to hit. He’s clever.
1st over: South Africa 9-0 (Markram 9, Rickelton 0) Hazlewood to begin, and Markram begins with a boundary! Drives him through cover first ball. He did something similar the other night. Follows up a couple of balls later with a straight drive for four, also similar to the other night. That time he hit three fours off the first five balls, then got out. This time, he hits two fours, then takes a single. Better.
Some rejigging for those teams there. Inglis is unwell, so Carey comes in but isn’t carded to bat as high, meaning Green goes to 3, David to 4, and Maxwell up to 5, leaving Owen where he was last start. Also Abbott comes in for Ellis.
For the South Africans, van der Dussen comes in higher up while squeezing out George Linde lower down, and Peter replaces Senuran Muthusamy.
South Africa
Aiden Markram *
Ryan Rickelton +
Rassie van der Dussen
Lhuan-dre Pretorius
Dewald Brevis
Tristan Stubbs
Corbin Bosch
Nqabayomzi Peter
Kagiso Rabada
Kwena Maphaka
Lungi Ngidi
Australia
Travis Head
Mitchell Marsh *
Cameron Green
Tim David
Glenn Maxwell
Mitchell Owen
Alex Carey +
Ben Dwarshuis
Sean Abbott
Adam Zampa
Josh Hazlewood
Australia win the toss and will bowl
They had to bat first the other night, but they like chasing, as most T20 teams do. They’ll get their way on that matter tonight.
Preamble
Geoff Lemon
Here we go. Another date in Darwin in August, winter in Australia but still plenty warm and tropical in the very north of the continent. And most importantly, usually dry. This is the second and final date in the Northern Territory before the third T20 moves on to Cairns in Queensland. If you’re from somewhere else and trying to visualise our country’s map, the latter is the pointy bit on the right, and the former is the hat in the middle. Today is a hat day. Every day in the NT should be a hat day, really.
Australia won the first T20 when they really didn’t have any right to, after being six down for 75, but South Africa let off Tim David and he punched up the score. Even so, SA should have won the chase, but Josh Hazlewood was too good and created a turning point.
So, Aiden Markram’s team will be annoyed to have let one slip, but Australia’s attacking method will give them chances. Just have to take them.
Let’s see what happens second time around.
