Today marks the beginning of an exciting upcoming home summer for Australian cricket. With the start of the ODI series against South Africa, the home side is all set to get over the tumultuous last eight months or so and win over the Australian public. However, Proteas pace spearhead Dale Steyn crushed any hopes the Kangaroos might have had of a happy beginning by claiming 2 wickets in 3 balls to break the back of an inexperienced Aussie batting. What was more sensational than a fired up Steyn was his captain Faf du Plessis flying high in the air to grab a catch for the bowler's second wicket.
After having dismissed opener Travis Head for 1 on the third delivery of his 2nd over, Steyn pitched the ball up which took the outside edge of newcomer D'Arcy Short's bat and flew towards Faf stationed at second slip. With the ball going a foot above his head and that too at great speed, the skipper showed amazing reflexes in grabbing the cherry out of thin air.
On a quick surface, after winning the toss, the visiting pace bowlers made their captain's decision to bowl first look even better by dismissing the opposition for 152 in just 38.1 overs. For the Proteas, Andile Phehlukwayo claimed 3 wickets with Lungi Ngidi, Steyn and Imran Tahir chipping in with 2 wickets apiece.
When lunch was taken Quinton de Kock and RR Hendricks had already shaved off 28 runs of the chase in just 5 overs. The match will be followed by two more ODIs in Adelaide and Hobart with a one-off T20I to wrap up the tour in Canberra on November 17.
