PRETORIA – South Africa captain Johan Botha produced another fine bowling performance to lead his team to victory by 17 runs in the second Twenty20 international on Sunday.
Though clever bowling by Australia had limited South Africa to 156-5, Australia’s batsmen could only manage 139-8 in reply as the home side went on to seal a 2-0 victory in the two-match series.
‘We were outplayed. A total of 157 was very chaseable, but you need partnerships in any format of the game. And it doesn’t help when you lose two wickets on top of each other,’ Australia captain Ricky Ponting said. ‘We changed it up really well with the bowling, but the South African spinners did well when we batted.’
Off-spinner Botha took 2-16 in his four overs, slowing the tourists’ progress as soon as he came on to bowl in the middle of the innings.
Botha helped to build the pressure on the opposition batsmen and took the key wicket of opener Michael Clarke in the 11th over of the innings for a 33-ball knock of 27. The captain’s other victim was Cameron White, caught in the deep by J.P. Duminy for 23 with the score on 106 in the 16th over.
Eight balls earlier, man-of-the-match Roelof van der Merwe had grabbed the important wicket of David Hussey, caught at point by Herschelle Gibbs for 27 as he went for a big hit. Hussey had struck 88 for Australia in Johannesburg in Friday’s match.
Van der Merwe, making an impressive debut, claimed 1-30 and did well to hold his nerve against Hussey, who had hit him for a six and a four off the two balls preceding his dismissal.
Hussey and White added 38 for the fifth wicket, the biggest partnership of their team’s innings.
Botha, speaking of the four changes made for Sunday’s match, said all the players brought in had done well in domestic 20-overs cricket.
‘They have showed what they can do at international level, and given the selectors a bit of a headache when it comes to selecting a squad for the World Cup in England in June,’ Botha added.
Australia needed 54 runs to win from the last five overs, but South Africa made it a tall order by conceding only six runs in the next two overs.
– Nampa-AP
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