South Africa registered another scintillating victory against Australia in the fourth One-Day International (ODI) at Port Elizabeth and have taken a 4-0 lead in the five-match series. They have played magnificently throughout the series and now have a golden chance to whitewash the visitors. Faf du Plessis powered the run chase and played a magnificent innings under pressure. The first innings was dominated by south African bowlers as they chipped wickets at regular intervals and didn’t let Australia make a comeback. Kyle Abbott bowled a superb spell to get rid of Australian openers and put pressure on the visitors. South Africa are now boosting with confidence and will be the team to beat henceforth. South Africa chased down the target of 168 within 36 overs with six wickets to spare. LIVE CRICKET SCORECARD: South Africa vs Australia, 4th ODI at Port Elizabeth
Australia won the toss and elected to bowl first on a pitch which had a lot of help for the bowlers. Their batsmen once again failed to fire and lost wickets aplenty. Kyle Abbott bowled beautifully with the new ball and dismissed Aaron Finch in the very first over of the match with a beauty. He continued his good momentum and also removed David Warner with a peach of a delivery. The opening spell was a delight to watch as Australia lost both the openers very early. Abbott got the ball to swing and hit the right areas to reap fruitful dividends. George Bailey was also done and dusted without much of an impact and so as Australian skipper Steve Smith. Australia were in all sorts of trouble at 49-4 after Smith’s dismissal inside 15 overs.
Mitchell Marsh, Matthew Wade provided some resistance and built a good partnership out in the middle. It was some serious counterattacking as the duo took on the charged South African bowlers with some confidence. They helped Australia reach a total of over 150 as not many got going out in the middle. Tabraiz Shamsi was instrumental with his spin and chipped in with some key wickets. He had the prized scalp of Smith, Travis Head and John Hastings to his name. Chris Tremain looked good with the bat but lacked support from the other end. Australia somehow posted a total of 167.
South African run-chase started off with few hiccups. They lost Hashim Amla early on in the innings as the elegant right-handed batsman was trapped leg before for a mere score of four by Chris Tremain. Quinton de Kock looked good but took on the challenge and pulled a short pitched delivery safe;y into the hands of square leg off Tremain. De Kock was in good touch and his dismissal certainly hurt South Africa. Faf du Plessis and JP Duminy stuck to their grounds and kept rotating the strike as wickets were fallen early. Initially, they didn’t take any risk and looked to bid their time at the crease. Duminy got a good start but failed to convert it into a big score as Adam Zampa got the better of him for 25, when the left-hander tried to take on the in field but ended up in the hands of mid-off.
Rilee Rossouw has been in good form and continued his good run in this match as well as he remained unbeaten on 33 and carried the team over the line. Faf du Plessis was dismissed for 69 and a much-needed one after losing early wickets. Farhaan Behardien also remained unconquered on 12 as Australia bowlers failed to chip as many wickets as required. Tremain bowled well with the new ball and had couple of wickets to his name while Adam Zampa and Mitchell Marsh had one each.
South Africa are now leading the series by 4-0 with a game to go. They have a golden opportunity to whitewash the visitors ion the five-match series and script history. Abbott was adjudged with Man of the Match award for scalping four key wickets and rightly so as he put the opposition on the back foot right from the very first over.
Brief Scores:
Australia 167 all out in 36.4 overs (Matthew Wade 52, Mitchell Marsh 50; Kyle Abbott 4 for 40, Tabraiz Shamsi 3 for 36) lost to South Africa (Faf du Plessis 69, Rilee Rossouw 33; Chris Tremain 2 for 48, Mitchell Marsh 1 for 22) by six wickets.
Full Scorecard.