Mackay (Australia), Aug 22: Fast bowler Lungi Ngidi grabbed five wickets to set up South Africa’s series-clinching 84-run win against Australia in the second one-day international on Friday.
Ngidi’s haul of 5-42 helped see Australia bowled out for 193 with more than 12 overs to spare as Mitchell Marsh’s team got dismissed for less than 200 runs for the fourth successive ODI at home.
Half centuries from Matthew Breetzke (88) and Tristan Stubbs (74) had earlier led South Africa to 277 all out after stand-in captain Aiden Markram won the toss and elected to bat.
Regular skipper Temba Bavuma was rested as part of his workload management and Cricket South Africa said he will be available to lead the side in the last game of the series on Sunday.
Bavuma sustained a hamstring injury during the World Test Championship final victory over Australia at Lord’s in June, but recovered in time to lead the side in the ODI series opener against Australia.
For the second successive time in the three-match series, Australia’s batters put up a below-par performance after losing the first game by 98 runs at Cairns.
In the absence of injured Kagiso Rabada, who was ruled out of the series with an injury, the South Africa pacers jolted Australia’s top order with Ngidi finding the outside edge of Marnus Labuschagne in his second over.
Nandre Burger also made an early impact when Travis Head (6) holed out at mid-on. The Australian batters continued to struggle against short deliveries when skipper Marsh also fell inside the batting powerplay and was caught at mid-on as the home team slumped to 38-3.
Josh Inglis (87) and Cameron Green (35) shared a 67-run stand and tried to put the chase on track, but not before Inglis got a lucky escape when Tony de Zorzi couldn’t hold on to a sharp catch at short covers.
Left-arm spinner Senuran Muthusamy broke the stand in the 23rd over when he held on to a smart low return catch to dismiss Green and Alex Carey was smartly caught by Dewald Brevis at point as Australia slipped to 133-5.
Ngidi then returned to tear through the lower order. He ended Inglis’ aggressive knock, which featured 10 fours and two sixes, when he had him caught behind and went on to claim three more wickets to seal the series for the Proteas.
Earlier, Rickelton and Stubbs shared an 89-run fourth-wicket stand after Xavier Bartlett removed Ryan Rickelton for eight while Markram chipped an easy catch to square mid-wicket and was out without scoring.
Breetzke scored his fourth successive half century while Stubbs breached the fifty-run mark for the first time in his 16 ODIs to rebuild South Africa shaky start.
Breetzke was denied his second ODI century when he was caught at deep mid-wicket off Nathan Ellis and Brevis also perished for just 1 while trying to pull Ellis in his next over.
Despite the fall of two quick wickets, South Africa looked set to cross the 300-run mark when it reached 233-5 at the end of 40th over.
However, it lost four wickets for 31 runs within six overs and slipped to 264-9 in the 46th over.
Wiaan Mulder made a quickfire 26 off 21 balls and Keshav Maharaj scored 22 not out before South Africa got bowled out with five balls to spare when No. 11 Ngidi was clean bowled by Josh Hazlewood. (AP)
