Last Friday (21st February) night, the hosts South Africa and the visitors Australia met in the first game of the three-match T20I series at Johannesburg where the visitors clinched a thrashing victory. During Australian innings in that match, Steven Smith hit a boundary on the clear dead ball bowled by speedster Dale Steyn.

It was the first match for the Australian cricketers; Smith and David Warner in South Africa since the ball-tampering controversy unfolded during the Cape Town Test in March 2018. During the latest Johannesburg T20I, the South African crowd booed the duo. Smith has been more trolled after he went for a shot on the dead ball.

That incident happened in the third over of the day. South African fast bowler Steyn was delivering his fifth ball in that over. But before his delivery stride, the ball slipped from his hand and travelled to the batsman.

Smith stepped down and hit the low ball just before the ball took its third drop on the pitch. That shot easily travelled to the boundary.

However, the umpires rightly called it a dead ball and Smith showed a peculiar gesture. The former Aussie captain was heavily booed for the same.

https://twitter.com/iemSRKian/status/1230942337892855808?s=20

Steven Smith was the highest run-scorer but it was Ashton Agar’s day

While Warner scored just four runs, Smith scored the highest runs in that game with 45 runs off 32 balls. Skipper Aaron Finch also scored 42 runs. In the late of that innings, while the wicketkeeper-batsman Alex Carey scored 27 runs, Ashton Agar remained not out on 20 runs (9 balls) as Australia managed to score 196/6 (20 overs) in the first innings.

In reply, South Africa scored their lowest completed T20I total – 89 runs (14.3 overs). Only three Proteas batsmen managed to reach the double digits in that innings.

In the meantime, Australian left-arm spinner Ashton Agar scalped five wickets, including a T20I hat-trick after dismissing Faf du Plessis, Andile Phehlukwayo and Steyn in three successive deliveries. The Player of the Match Agar had the bowling figures of 4-0-24-5 – the best T20I bowling figures by an Australian bowler.