Morkel's fiver helps South Africa level series

Australia won the toss in the 2nd ODI between Australia and South Africa held at Perth and chose to bat first. Steven Smith came in for the injured Clarke who won’t be available for the remaining part of the series as well, while South Africa chose Rilee Rossouw in place of Ryan McLaren.

Morne Morkel gave South Africa a superb start by getting rid of the danger man-David Warner in the very first over of the match for a duck. The ball had bounced sharply and thudded into Warner’s glove and a sharp catch by the keeper, De Kock meant curtains for David Warner’s short innings. Steyn continued the momentum going with a wicket in the 5th over. This time the man to go was Aaron Finch. Finch drove this angled length delivery on the up, and Morkel stretcheed his hands over his head to take it cleanly. South Africa strengthening their batting meant more overs by part-timers in the middle. Part-timer Behardien joined the party by getting Shane Watson out lbw in the 11th over. Steven smith was the next man to go in the very next over. Morkel banged it in short of a length, Smith tried to force a pull, and Tahir took the top edge after moving to his left from mid-on.

Stand-in Captain George Bailey and Mitch Marsh formed a decent partnership and tried to revive Australia before Bailey threw away his wicket to Philander. Bailey wasn’t on top of the stroke as he hit it off the front foot low to Faf at mid-on. Wade showed some resistance before getting out to Morkel in the 1st of the betting powerplay overs. Maxwell followed suite 2 balls later. Maxwell was on his toes trying to run this short of a length ball towards third man but ended up playing on, again. Morkel completed the 2nd fiver of his ODI career by getting rid of Johnson in his next over. A length ball around middle and off by Steyn saw the back of Coulter-Nile in the 40th over. He whipped it towards a tumbling Faf to give his second catch of the match. Marsh’s lone resilience ended in the 42nd over after he had made 67 runs as he gave away his wicket to Dale Steyn trying to clear the tall Morne Morkel at short fine leg.

Hazlewood got De Kock out for 4 in the 2nd over of the South African reply. Watson,the man at first slip jumped high to catch this thick edge of a cut. The other opener, Amla too followed him soon towards the pavilion as he got out to Johnson in the 7th over of the innings. Amla arched back and tried to upper cut this bouncer over the cordon but only managed an edge through to the keeper, Wade. Rossouw scored a fast 30 off 25 balls before Maxwell got him caught at slip in the 14th over of the innings. Hazlewood struck twice in succession in the 20th over to remove Faf Du Plessis an Behardien. Faf wanted to hook, but only managed a thin edge through to Wade whereas Behardien hopped and awkwardly fended a short one straight to Warner at gully. De Villiers continued his strokeplay but was unlucky to have not completed his fifty and was out for a 41 ball 48 in the 26th over. AB chipped out and tried to drive, only to thick edge it through to the keeper giving Hazlewood his fourth wicket of the match. Hazlewood completed his fiver by making Philander jump with a steep bouncer, it popped up towards Johnson at gully, who took it safely despite Warner running almost in his way from the slips but the match was out of Australia’s reach by then as Steyn came in and finished things off with a four to complete the formality.

Australia and South-Africa are now levelled at 1-1 in the 5 match ODI series with 3 matches more to go.
Australia- 154 (41.4 ov)
South Africa- 157/7 (27.4 ov)
South Africa won by 3 wickets (with 134 balls remaining)
Man of the Match : Morne Morkel

Post-Match Comments :

AB de Villiers: “Little angry with myself for getting out. Those totals are always tricky to chase. I like to be positive when I come into situations. I was confident in the boys. I was not happy that I let them down. I love to finish games. Felt the guys were calm to start with and recognised the key moments. Very happy for Morne Morkel. Behardien really played his role today.”
Bailey: “Just not enough runs. I can’t remember getting too many drives and cuts, it was the pressure that built up. Large gap between our best and worst at the moment.” Bailey says it was a combination of good bowling from South Africa and poor batting from Australia, adding that many of his batsmen could not say they had got out to great deliveries.
Morkel: “To start well was important, in that first over. Always love to bowl at the WACA with the bounce. To take a five-for against this quality line-up is going into the memory bank for me.”