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15th over: Australia 117-0 (Head 67, Marsh 41) Sparkling footwork from Head who dances down to swipe Maharaj over mid off for four and then repeats the shot even more sweetly for SIX. Wonderful batting.
14th over: Australia 106-0 (Head 56, Marsh 41) The bustling Bosch slows things down a little with just a single and a leg bye off his first over.
Bad news for Lance Morris:
13th over: Australia 104-0 (Head 56, Marsh 40) Head lofts Maharaj into the deep for a couple that brings up the 100 run opening stand. It’s been all Australia so far. The pleasingly onomatopoeic Corbin Bosch is coming into the attack to replace Markram.
12th over: Australia 98-0 (Head 53, Marsh 38) Markram gives a smidge too much flight and is driven high and handsome for SIX by Marsh. Gah, a loose delivery down the leg side from Markram and Rickelton can’t collect it so it is three freebies to the Aussies.
11th over: Australia 88-0 (Head 52, Marsh 32) Maharaj goes for just two singles off his fourth.
10th over: Australia 86-0 (Head 51, Marsh 31) Marsh bunts Markram inside out over cover for four and the openers rotate strike with ease as the field is spread.
9th over: Australia 79-0 (Head 50, Marsh 25) Head backs away to give himself room and carves Maharaj over cover for four. He goes to a quick 50 with a single clipped to leg. He’s had a quiet time of it recently and will want plenty more.
8th over: Australia 72-0 (Head 45, Marsh 24) Spin from both ends as Markram replaces the beleaguered Mulder. A tidy first over, just two singles off it. Stating the obvious but South Africa need to break this partnership or risk plenty of leather chasing this afternoon.
7th over: Australia 70-0 (Head 44, Marsh 23) Head drives Maharaj down the ground for four but the current number one white ball bowler in the world shows his canny wiles by mixing up his pace and flight to get out fo the over for just three more singles.
6th over: Australia 63-0 (Head 38, Marsh 22) Shot! Glorious on drive from Head as Mulder’s struggles continue. Pick that out! Mulder drops short and is swivelled on the pull into the crowd by Travis Head. Four more off a meaty outside edge as the scoreboard continues to clatter. Scintillating stuff from the Walrus-tached opener. Australia off to a flier!
5th over: Australia 45-0 (Head 22, Marsh 21) Maharaj gets the ball to spin off the straight, Marsh lofts for two into the leg side and collects a couple more past mid on. Maharaj slows things down though, just four off his first
4th over: Australia 41-0 (Head 22, Marsh 17) Marsh takes a couple of steps out of his ground and larrups Mulder for SIX over mid off! Maharaj is being summoned already as the Proteas look to get some control in this match. Australia will look to smash him out of the attack.
3rd over: Australia 32-0 (Head 20, Marsh 10) Head goes onto his tippy-toes and punches another boundary. danger signs for South Africa as both openers look to be in fine fettle. Maphaka goes short and Head baseball swats back down the ground for four, following up with a rasping cut shot that clatters the hoardings. A play and a miss finishes another eventful over.
2nd over: Australia 20-0 (Head 8, Marsh 10) Wiaan Mulder to share the new white ball. Mitch Marsh is not messing about – the big fella cracks his first ball through cover and then pulls the fourth ball emphatically for SIX. Ten off the second over. Look a decent toss to have won for the home side.
1st over: Australia 10-0 (Head 8, Marsh 0) Head takes strike to Kwena Maphaka with Aussie captain Mitch Marsh stationed at the non-strikers. South Africa have two slips in place. Head opens his account with a clip off the pads that goes fine and Muthusamy dives over the ball in the field to gift four! Scrappy start from the visitors. Maphaka slings down a couple of wides before getting one straight that Head duly pings back past him for four more.
The players head out to the middle under true blue skies, let’s play!
The cheers could have been because of this! A change is as good as a rest?
Australia win the toss and choose to bat first
A few cheers around the ground as Mitch Marsh calls the coin toss correctly. I don’t think they were sarcastic but Australia fans would be forgiven for raising an eyebrow or two as the batting card has failed to fire in ODIs of late. Can they make 200 for the first time this series. We’ll soon find out.
Teams:
Australia: 1 Mitchell Marsh (c), 2 Travis Head, 3 Marnus Labuschagne, 4 Cameron Green, 5 Josh Inglis (wk), 6 Alex Carey, 7 Cooper Connolly, 8 Xavier Bartlett, 9 Sean Abbott, 10 Nathan Ellis, 10 Adam Zampa
South Africa: 1 Ryan Rickelton, 2 Aiden Markram, 3 Temba Bavuma (c), 4 Tony de Zorzi, 5 Tristan Stubbs, 6 Dewald Brevis, 7 Wiaan Mulder, 8 Corbin Bosch, 9 Keshav Maharaj, 10 Senuran Muthusamy, 11 Kwena Maphaka
Changes afoot! Sean Abbott and Cooper Connolly are in for Australia with Hazlewood and Hardie ‘rested’. South Africa have allowed Matthew Breetzke, Nandre Burger and Lungi Ngidi to put their trotters up with Corbin Bosch and Kwena Maphaka coming in. Bavuma confirms he is rotating his men with that tour of England next up, he also admits he would have batted first on a decent looking track.
The coin will be flipped imminently in Mackay.
Get up to speed in the meantime:
Preamble
James Wallace
Hello and welcome to the third and final ODI between Australia and South Africa from the fantastically named Great Barrier Reef Arena in Mackay, Queensland.
Dead rubber? Pffft no such thing between these two sides. After sealing the series on Friday with a second thumping win the Proteas are aiming for a series whitewash whilst Australia will be desperate to reverse their anvil-strapped nose dive of seven defeats in their last eight ODIs.
South Africa head over to England after this series for more white ball action, they’ve been very impressive in the last few matches with Lungi Ngidi and Keshav Maharaj starring with the ball and Matthew Breetzke peppering the fence with the bat.
Play gets underway in a little over half an hour – at 2.30pm AEST and an eye-bag inducing 5.30am here in Blighty. I’ll bring news of the teams and toss very shortly. Do get in touch if you are tuning in. Let’s do this.
