Australia captain Mitch Marsh expressed his disappointment after his team capitulated tamely in the opening ODI against South Africa in Durban, losing by 67 runs. The world champions were bowled out for 230 in 41.2 overs while chasing the hosts' 297-8 target.
Captain's knock in vain
Marsh, standing in as skipper for the rested Pat Cummins, led from the front with a blistering 60 off 36 balls, including three sixes. One of those sixes sailed 104 metres over the dressing room roof at Kingsmead and landed at the roadside. He shared an opening stand of 90 in 9.2 overs with Travis Head.
But after Marsh fell needlessly to the spin of Keshav Maharaj, none of his teammates could build the partnerships needed. Head made 36, Cooper Connolly 38, and Matt Renshaw 44, but all got out to airy shots when Australia were up with the required rate and under no real pressure.
South Africa's spin and fielding brilliance
The slow left-armers Maharaj (4-20) and Bjorn Fortuin (2-34) applied the pressure. Josh Inglis was dismissed by a poorly executed reverse sweep on the eighth ball he faced, and Australia lost their last six wickets for just 54 runs.
South Africa had earlier set the challenging target after being inserted by Marsh, thanks to a brilliant 112 from Matthew Breetzke and a spectacular 75 off 59 balls from Marco Jansen. The key moment came when Jansen took a sensational running, diving, one-handed catch in the outfield to remove Renshaw off Gerald Coetzee, leaving Australia on 215-7 with no way back.
Series pressure mounts
Marsh said: "I'm pretty disappointed, South Africa outplayed us. It was a good game of cricket, but we fell well short. We had our opportunities, I am probably going to sound like a broken record speaking about having partnerships in our batting, but we weren't able to form many tonight."
The opening loss puts pressure on Australia to turn the series around at The Wanderers in Johannesburg on Sunday, when Cummins is set to be recalled. Australia have not won a bilateral series against South Africa since 2014.
