Chasing 289 for victory, South Africa were in a comfortable position when Amla and du Plessis were involved in century partnership.They were 210 for 4 in the thirty-eighth over, needing 79 runs from the last twelve overs to win the match but then a collapse derailed their chase as they were dismissed for 252 runs in the 48th over.
After the match,South Africa captain AB de Villiers expressed his disappointment at the “soft dismissals” from his batsmen that let Australia back into the contest in the fourth match of the tri-series in St Kitts. All of the top five batsmen got good starts but none of them converted it into a big one.
“Lots of our dismissals were soft dismissals tonight, including my own,” de Villiers said. “Those things are bad decisions at the wrong time. It’s not really something you can work on. It’s just something we have to fix in the next game with a better mindset … The wicket played pretty well throughout the game. We’ve got no excuse, we just didn’t bat well enough.”
With the ball reversing, Australia had no trouble in cleaning the South African lower order, collecting the last seven wickets for 42 runs in 10 overs. South African batsman du Plessis, who was making a comeback, also rued the poor shot selection from his batsmen.
“We pretty much controlled the game in that second innings for about 80% of the time, with myself and Hashim and then myself and AB,” du Plessis said. “To be honest, I thought that when myself and AB were batting it was pretty much in our hands. We felt in control.
“Obviously, we knew Australia had to get wickets to get back in the game and they did that with some good bowling from Starcy at the tail-enders there. But I think we can point the finger straight back at ourselves – some pretty poor shots to give them wickets to get them back in the game.”
Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, and Adam Zampa each picked up three wickets, but the difference in the match was the 109 scored by David Warner earlier in the day. He was the only man from either team who really capitalised on a start, and du Plessis said if one of South Africa’s set batsmen had stayed in until the end, the result would have been different.
“It’s one guy saying ‘I’m going to win the game today’ and putting his hand up,” du Plessis said. “If you look at the best players in the world, it’s guys that can do that more consistently, someone like Virat Kohli at the moment who is winning a lot of games of cricket for his country. Today we had three batsmen – myself, Hashim and AB – who could have done that.”
Australian captain Steve Smith heaped praise on his bowlers after a fine display of reverse-swing with the bowl. He also praised young leggie Adam Zampa for a good bowling display on a small ground.
“It’s always hard to start against a ball that’s reversing when you’ve got someone like Mitchell Starc or Josh Hazlewood coming in at you,” Australia’s captain Steven Smith said.
“I thought those guys did a terrific job when the ball started to go. I think we got five wickets in six overs at one point and that obviously turned the game.
“[Zampa] was good. I put him under a bit of pressure at the end there as well. I bowled him a few overs where they could have hit a few to these small straight boundaries. But he held his nerve nicely. He changed his pace, mixed it up, bowled some googlies and he’s come a long way.”