Twitter Reactions: South Africa humble Australia in Perth to take 1-0 lead

Australia’s homecoming after a tough tour to the United Arab Emirates didn’t go according to plans as South Africa humbled them by six wickets in the first of the three-match series. The Perth Stadium didn’t witness much of a crowd on Sunday as well. Perhaps, even the fans knew that their team will put up an underwhelming show on the day. They were never allowed to make a comeback by the skilful visitors and romped home easily in the chase.

After opting to bowl first, vintage Dale Steyn rocked the home side early. He sent back Travis Head and D’Arcy in a single over to reduce the Aussies to 4/2 as the new strip in the new stadium replicated the WACA surface to everyone’s surprise. Lungi Ngidi wasn’t behind either as he trapped Aaron Finch in front of the stumps in the sixth over to leave them reeling at 8/3.

There was no respite for the hosts as Kagiso Rabada bowled with the same intensity and amazingly, South Africa didn’ concede even a single boundary in the first 10 overs. It was only in the 12th over when the first four of the match was scored as Rabada dished out a full toss to Chris Lynn. However, it was a rare miss by the bowlers. The wickets kept on tumbling for Australia and at one stage were 107/8.

Nathan Coulter-Nile launched a brief counter-attack then to lift them to 152 runs as they were bowled out in the 39th over. Alex Carey also showed some resistance during his 71-ball stay in the middle, but couldn’t score much. He was dismissed for 33 runs by Imran Tahir and literally, Australia couldn’t gain any momentum during the innings.

Walk in the park for SA

The paltry score was never going to bother South Africa. But there was a hope in the Australian camp with the way, the visitors’ fast bowlers extracted bounce from the pitch. But Quinton de Kock attacked from the word go to disturb their lines and a glimmer of hope also shattered for them. He added 94 runs for the first wicket with Reeza Hendricks before getting out to Coulter-Nile on 47.

Hendricks too missed out on a half-century as he was dismissed by Marcus Stoinis but hardly did it matter in the context of the game. Aiden Markam looked good during his 36-run knock but he got out with just 10 runs needing to win. The skipper Faf du Plessis and David Miller completed the formalities then as South Africa sealed the chase in the 30th over of the innings.

They have taken a 1-0 lead in the series now and will be looking to win the series in the next game itself which will be played in Adelaide on Friday. Australia, on the other hand, have four days to resurrect themselves and come out with better plans for the rest of the series.

Here’s how the Twitter reacted during the game:

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