In a must-win game, South Africa outplayed Mitchell Marsh-led Australia in all departments of the game to register a win by 164 runs, their second-biggest win by a run margin in the format. Heinrich Klaasen was the architect of the win as he destroyed the Aussie batting lineup with an 83-ball 174 to help the hosts post a massive total of 416/5 with the help of David Miller's unbeaten 82. Alex Carey turned out to be the lone warrior for Australia as they got all out for 252 in the 35th over.
Marsh won the toss and opted to bowl first. Reeza Hendricks started off well but got out after scoring 28 runs. Quinton de Kock missed his half-century as he departed for 45. On his ODI return, Michael Neser got the wicket of stand-in skipper Aiden Markram. Rassie van der Dussen scored 62 runs from 65 balls and became Hazlewood's second victim.
Klaasen and Miller played themselves in and then unleashed an onslaught. Klaasen reached his half-century from 38 balls. He accelerated and got to his century from just 57 balls. Miller played second fiddle to him. Klaasen went berserk and smashed 13 sixes, as many sixes in his 83-ball 174. Miller's 45-ball 82 featured six fours and five sixes. Adam Zampa had a nightmarish outing as he conceded 113 runs, the joint-most in an ODI innings.
In the run chase of 417, David Warner and Marsh got out early to Lungi Ngidi. To make matters worse, Travis Head was hit on the forearm by Gerald Coetzee and got retired hurt. In-form Marnus Labuschagne became Marco Jansen's only victim of the day. Kagiso Rabada ended Marcus Stoinis’ cameo. Carey took the attack to the opposition. Tim David hit a few good shots as well before falling to Ngidi.
In the end, Carey was stranded on one end. He missed his second ODI century by just one run. He scored 99 runs from 77 balls including nine fours and four sixes. Carey became the fourth Australian batter to get out on 99 in ODIs. The visitors got all out for 252 in the 35th over. Ngidi was the standout bowler with four wickets from eight overs.
“That's the definition of a tough day at the office. Klaasen was just amazing today. It was a tough day. We were put under a lot of pressure towards the back end there. Hats off to Heinrich. We were one or two wickets away from putting pressure on them. We couldn't get that breakthrough. We didn't have too many options to go to. We would have been happy with 300-350. The ball just travels here and the outfield was lightning. We needed a couple of big partnerships, lost a few wickets early and the game was done. It was great to see Carey get some runs. It's great for our team, he's really important for us,” Marsh said in the post-match presentation.
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