Explosive Australia batter Tim David was the star of the show as Australia defeated South Africa by 17 runs to win the first T20I of the five-match series held at the TIO stadium in Darwin. The batter played a sensational knock of 83 runs from 52 deliveries and guided the side to a fighting total of 178 after the side had been restricted to 75/6 at one stage.
Australia performed brilliantly with the ball
In reply, the hosts managed to restrict the Proteas to 161/9 in 20 overs thanks to a fantastic bowling display which saw Josh Hazlewood and Ben Dwarshuis pick up three scalps each while Adam Zampa and Glenn Maxwell chipped in with important wickets. Australia eventually won the match by 17 runs and took a 1-0 lead in the series.
David was adjudged as the Player of the Match and opened up about the side's 'all guns blazing' approach. Notably, the Baggy Greens had put up 71 runs on the board within the powerplay itself despite losing four wickets.
“It’s obviously not the team plan to be four down within six overs, but that happens at times. We’ve got what we believe is a great calibre of batters in our batting order, and we back each guy to make the right decisions," David said on Monday.
“We’ve been playing together as a group now for a while, so there’s not a great deal of instruction from the coaches. They trust the players. We trust ourselves to go out there and we understand the game situation and we make decisions on the fly, because that’s the nature of T20 cricket," he added.
“I think if you’d watched our guys bat over the last period, wherever they bat around the world and when they play for the Australian team, it’s close to all guns blazing. So, yeah, you can probably expect to see that a little bit from our team. That’s how we think we play best," he further stated.
David is in superb form in the shortest format and has scored 215 runs in just the last three matches. This includes a stunning unbeaten knock of 102 against West Indies. He has now undoubtedly become a mainstay in the Baggy Greens' T20I set-up and is already expected to be a key figure for the side in the 2026 T20 World Cup.