South Africa staged a dramatic turnaround against Australia in the first ODI in Durban on Thursday to win by 67 runs.
Australia were 129/1 after 16 overs in their chase of 298 but lost their last nine wickets for 101 runs.
Keshav Maharaj and Bjorn Fortuin did most of the damage. Spinner Maharaj took 4 for 20 from 9.2 overs to trigger the collapse.
Medium pocers Fortuin finished with two wickets as did Corbin Bosch. The catching from Marco Jansen and Matthew Breetzke were also outstanding after the pair set up the game with an 107-run partnership.
Captain Mitch Marsh was Australia’s top-scorer with 60 off 36 balls while Matt Renshaw contributed 44 off 49.
Earlier, Man of the Match Breetzke (112 off 106) became the leading run-scorer in ODIs after 14 innings and scored the second century of his career to take South Africa to a competitive total. Breetzke and Jansen’s sixth-wicket stand took the hosts from 168/5 in the 34th over to a total they backed themselves to defend.
Only one total higher than this had been successfully chased at Kingsmead, and that was 372 by South Africa against Australia a decade ago. Two Australians – Marsh and Travis Head – were a part of that XI.
After choosing to bowl first on Thursday, Australia’s attack had the measure of South Africa for the first two-thirds of the innings. Josh Hazlewood made use of a fuller length than Mitchell Starc and proved difficult to get away. Nathan Ellis’ use of the wobble seam and slower balls challenged South Africa while Adam Zampa took two wickets in his first four overs.
The hosts shuffled their batting order to accommodate for the absence of Aiden Markram for personal reasons, and tasked Tony de Zorzi with opening with Quinton de Kock. De Zorzi faced a testing over from Hazlewood before edging him to Matt Renshaw at slip.
De Kock struck the first six of the innings when he pulled Hazlewood behind square but did not manage any more shots.
South Africa saved their attacking best for the end and scored 54 runs in the last five overs in front of an appreciative public holiday crowd.
Brief scores: South Africa 297/8 in 50 ovs (Matthew Breetzke 112, Marco Jansen 75; Nathan Ellis 3/57) Australia 230 in 41.2 ovs (Mitchell Marsh 60; Keshav Maharaj 4/20, Bjorn Fortuin 2/34). South Africa won by 67 runs.