Twitter Reactions: South Africa chase down 158 to win a thriller
It was time for South Africa v Australia 1st T20I and suddenly there was a lot of excitement in the air. Two teams that have always been considered the best, have an attacking batting lineup, a powered bowling attack and more than that a unit hungry for victory. Both the teams wanted to win this game to go one up in the series.
Steve Smith won the toss and decided to bat first at the Kingsmead, Durban. They started with Usman Khawaja and Aaron Finch, but Khawaja got out early and David Warner joined Finch. The right-hander looked much better off the captaincy pressure and demolished the Protea bowling scoring at a strike rate of 222.22. He got out on the 18th ball of his inning on the score of 40 with as many as four 6s and two 4s. South Africa came back well to control the run flow and Imran Tahir once again chipped in with wickets and that saw the scoring rate drop down as well. Some sensible hitting from Mitchell Marsh lower down the order saw them get to 157/9 in 20 overs.
South African fans expected the biggest star in their lineup AB de Villiers to come good in this chase but their innings had the worst possible start as AB edged the first ball of the innings from Nathan Coulter-Nile to Peter Nevil and was out for a golden duck. His partner Quinton de Kock departed soon after and the home team had concerned faces in the dugout. Skipper Faf du Plessis batted really well for his 40 off 26 but got run out to a poor call. JP Dumiy and Rilee Rossouw couldn’t do much either. But it was David Miller who stood up and decided to take his team home.
Miller’s killer knock worth 53 from just 35 balls ensured South Africa sailed smoothly though the chase with 3 wickets and 5 balls in hand. He was at his brutal best striking it clean and out of the park. Two of his blows were so big that they actually needed to get a new ball. The Proteas will definitely take lot of confidence from this win and will look to close on the series in the next game while Australia have a few mistakes to asses and they should once again believe they can beat South Africa at home.
Here is how Twitter reacted during this thrilling contest at Kingsmead:
https://twitter.com/AltCricket/status/705836095314006016
https://twitter.com/AltCricket/status/705834176549933056
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