Mark Boucher and Albie Morkel put on a world class batting performance to help South Africa to victory by four wickets with four balls to spare in the first Standard Bank Pro20 international against Australia at Liberty Life Wanderers in Johannesburg on Friday.

Earlier in the evening, the Australians posted 166/7 with more than half those runs coming from the bat of David Hussey. Australia were in deep trouble in the 10th over; they were 71/5 as a result of the failure of four of the top six Australian batsmen not reaching double figures.

Hussey was in total control as he raced to 88 runs off 44 balls while the rest of the Australian team crumbled. Hussey got hold of Dale Steyn in the 18th and 20th over, smashing him for 32 runs.

South Africa started slow with Amla and Gibbs opening the batting, the pressure of a climbing run rate took its toll as the batsmen tried to engineer run scoring shots. The regular fall of wickets put South Africa in a spot of trouble and by the 15th over they needed 62 runs with five batsmen already back in the dugout.

At one point The Proteas needed 12 runs per over and it didn’t look like a victory for South Africa was on the cards; enter the explosive Albie Morkel and the ever cool Mark Boucher. The experience of Mark Boucher ensured the run rate picked up, with the now established ODI and Pro20 player Albie Morkel at the other end hitting a match winning 37 off 19 balls.

Liberty Life Wanderers was packed to capacity; the expectant crowd as vocal as ever as in every encounter between the home side and the Australians at the bull ring. The spectacular turn out was a fantastic advertisement for local cricket and the upcoming IPL to be hosted in South Africa. Not even a short interruption from the lights going out could put a dampener on the event.

We look forward to another great game at SuperSport Park in Centurion on Sunday afternoon.

Shaun Custers SA Cricket Blog