Delhi: In the first match of the three matches of T20 International Series played on Sunday at Darwin’s Marrara Cricket Ground, Australia defeated South Africa by 17 runs to take a 1-0 lead in the series. After winning the toss, South Africa decided to bowl first, but the Australian batsmen scored a strong score of 178 runs, in response to which the South African team could score 161 runs.

Australian batsmen strong performance

For Australia, Tim David batted in a stormy style and hit 83 runs off 52 balls, including 4 fours and 8 sixes. Cameron Green also played a fast innings of 35 runs in 13 balls, hitting 4 fours and 3 sixes. Captain Mitchell Marsh added 13 runs in 7 balls. However, Travis Head (2 runs) and Josh English (0) were dismissed early. Finally Ben Dwarashuis scored 17 runs off 19 balls.

The team scored 178 runs losing 10 wickets in 20 overs, including 12 additional runs.

Quena Mafaka’s deadly bowling

For South Africa, Quena Mafaka bowled brilliantly and took 4 wickets for just 20 runs in 4 overs. Apart from him, Kagiso Rabada took 2 wickets for 29 runs. Senuran Muthusamy and George Linde had one success each.

South Africa failure in run chase

Chasing the target, South Africa started slow. Ryan Ricelton scored a struggling innings of 71 runs off 55 balls, while Triston Stabs scored 37 runs in 27 balls.

However, the rest of the batsmen could not play a big innings and the team could score 161 runs after losing 9 wickets in 20 overs.

Australian bowlers burnt

For Australia, Ben Dwarashuis and Josh Hazlewood took 3-3 wickets. The strategy of dropping the wicket at the right time gave the hosts victory and gave the lead in the series.