Australia completed a flawless 3-0 Twenty20 series victory over South Africa, with Travis Head’s explosive performance propelling them to a thrilling five-wicket triumph in the final match in Durban.
Responding to South Africa’s score of 190 for eight at Kingsmead, Travis Head played a magnificent game, blasting a career-best 91 off just 48 balls to lead Australia to win with 13 balls to spare. Josh Inglis (42 off 22 balls) and Marcus Stoinis (37 not out off 21) also contributed, but it was Head who stole the stage for most of the innings.
In this remarkable showing, Head, whose previous highest T20 international score was 48 not out, sent the ball out of the park six times and struck the boundary with eight fours. He did enjoy a stroke of luck when he was dropped by Temba Bavuma on 55, but Bavuma eventually made amends by capturing Head in the deep off Bjorn Fortuin’s bowling. However, by that point, Australia needed just five more runs to secure the triumph. It’s worth mentioning that Head had scored only 18 and 6 in the first two matches, making his Sunday performance a warning message for South Africa ahead of the next five-match one-day international series, which starts on September 7th.
On the bowling front, Sean Abbott, the Australian fast bowler, was the hero of the day, with career-best figures of four for 31. His outstanding performance played a significant part in reducing South Africa to a total below 200. South Africa got off to a rocky start, sliding to 12 for two in the third over, but vital contributions from their captain, Aiden Markram (41 off 23 balls), Reeza Hendricks (42 off 30), and Tristan Stubbs (25 off 16) helped stabilize the innings.
Donovan Ferreira then supplied some late fireworks with a scorching 48 off 21 balls, rescuing South Africa after they had dropped to 122 for six due to a middle-order collapse of six wickets for only three runs. Abbott was vital in starting the middle-order collapse with a double-wicket maiden over, while Stoinis made early inroads into the batting lineup before facing some late onslaught, ultimately ending with figures of two for 39.
Sandeep Lamichhane finished with stats of one for 39, while Nathan Ellis took the brunt of South Africa’s aggressive batting, especially when Ferreira was at his destructive best, giving 50 runs without taking a wicket.
Mitchell Marsh was named man of the series after plundering 186 runs from 100 balls across his three innings in a stunning start to his reign as captain.
“I’m really proud of a pretty young group coming over here and winning the series 3-0,” Marsh said in the post-match presentation.
“We had a great team effort. We prepared really well, and we took the game on. We had a bit of luck at times, but as a team, we had the mentality of being really positive,” he further added.
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