Earlier SA won the toss and put the Australians into bat with a batting line up that consisted od the best T20 players in Australia. Clarke lost his stumps in the seconfd over to Parnell trying to hit the ball over the covers. Australia lost their captain Ricky ponting for 1 when he tried to play one too many shots off Albie Morkel who maintained a good line. Australia at this point were 16 for 2 in 3.2 overs.
Score Card Courtesy: CRICINFO
A good partnership between Warner and David Hussey of 54 put Australians back in the match before Warner played a ball straight back to the slow left arm bowler Robin Peterson who took a very good catch. Warner out C&b to Peterson for 3. the score suddenly turned 70 for 4 after Micheal Hussey was run out to a direct hit from Botha fielding at short Midwicket. Australia lost their way when Haddin was out caught by Morkel at the long on boundary trying to break the shackles only putting his team in a deeper hole. Australia were 71-5 in 10 overs. Cameron White supported David hussey for quite a while and the duo took Australia past the 100 mark in the 15th over. Trying to Up the anti, White was caught at the deep mid wicket boundary by Duminy off the bowling of Peterson after he hit the previous ball for six in the same direction. Mitchell Johnson played a supportive role to Hussey who was going big time against the inexperienced attack of SA. He finished 88 not out off 63 balls to take Australia to a par score of 166 for 7.
Gibbs and Amla tooke the field and the attack against the Austrlian bowlers strating the innings off in blistering fashion. Gibbs had scored 19 off the 25 runs, Sa were 25/0 at the end of the third over. Gibbs innings came to an end when he was caught in the covers trying to smash the first ball of Geeves first over. DeVelliers continued to show poor form in the T20 format of the game when he was out bowled to a full delivery from Geeves leaving South Africa at 46 for 2 in 5.1 overs. Duminy and Amla stictched together a good partnership, but Amla who played the ball all along the ground was out bowled to a yorker from David Hussey. Duminy soon foollowed when he was out bowled for 21 bowled to hopes. VB Jaarsveld didn't impress Botha as much when he lost his stumps to David Hussey who was having a ball of time in the middle.
With South Africa at 83-5, It was a Mark Boucher and Albie Morkel show from then on. Balls flying over the fielders for six and boundaries. The duo scored a partnership off 58 before Morkel(37 off 19 balls) was out caught by David Husssey at the boundary off Mithchel Johnson. SA needed 26 off 23 balls. Johnson finished a good over with South Africa still needing about 20 runs to win the match. Boucher smashed the next over and 20th over of the match to lead SA to a 1-0 lead in the 2 match T20 series. Boucher scored 36 off 22 balls.
Johan Botha, the South Africa captain, praised the performances of Mark Boucher and Albie Morkel after they showed why they get paid "the big bucks" in the tight four-wicket Twenty20 win over Australia. Boucher and Morkel concluded the hosts' recovery from 83 for 5 to reach 168 for 6 with four balls remaining.
Ricky Ponting was also impressed by the effort of Morkel, who took 1 for 36 before his 37 off 19 deliveries. "He probably won a couple of games single-handedly with his batting in Australia," Ponting said. "His power hitting tonight probably got them over the line again.
"So he is a very, very dangerous hitter. They use him very well. They hold him off as late as they possibly can and let him go in for the final onslaught really." Ponting said Australia got into a position where they should have won. "That's the disappointing thing about it," he said. "If we had got blown off the park then I would not have been as disappointed.
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Kunal Janu
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