New Delhi: South Africa continued their dominance over Australia in the fifty-over format after winning their fifth consecutive series with clinical win in the second ODI at Mackay on Friday. Lungi Ngidi proved to be the start of the show for the Proteas as the pacer rattled the Aussie batters with a terrific fifer to give his team a 84-run win.
Australia took an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series with the third and last ODI to be played on Sunday. Apart from Ngidi, Senuran Muthusamy and Nandre Burger claimed two wickets each while Wiaan Mulder also clinched a wicket as the Proteas bundled out the hosts for 193 runs in the 38th over after scoring a big 277-run total.
Other than Josh Inglis and Cameron Green, none of the batters from the star-studded lineup could make an impact during the chase. Inglis top-scored with 87 runs while Green added valuable 35 runs after Aussies lost the wickets of Marnus Labuschagne (1), Travis Head (6) and skipper Mitchell Marsh for 18 runs. Alex Carey added 13 runs but was unable to convert his score into a big total.
Breetzke, Stubbs shine for Proteas
Matthew Breetzke and Tristan Stubbs proved to be the star batters for the visiting side with scores of 88 and 74 respectively but both failed to complete their centuries. Tony de Zorzi also added 38 runs after South Africa lost Ryan Rickelton (8) and skipper Aiden Markram (0) early in the innings.
For Australia, Adam Zampa was the highest wicket-taker with three scalps while Xavier Bartlett, Nathan Ellis and Marnus Labuschagne contributed with two wickets apiece. The final match of the series, which is a dead rubber, would be played at the same venue on August 24. Prior to this, the Proteas had defeated the Aussies in an ODI series in 2023, 2020, 2018 and 2016. Australia had won the T20I series 2-1 before the ODIs.