Proteas score comfortable victory in T20 Tour Finale

THE Standard Bank Proteas world-class pace attack finished the tour as they started it as they rounded off a 21-run victory for the South Africans over Australia in the one-off T20 International at Carrara on Saturday. It was effectively a T10 match as persistent rain for much of the evening reduced the game to a 10 overs per side match. The Proteas, having lost the toss at an unfamiliar venue for them, were given a runaway start by Quinton de Kock and Reeza Hendricks who put on 42 in the three power play overs. A further 50 runs came off the next five overs and, although they only scored 10/3 in their last two overs, they still posted a highly competitive total of 108/6. The pace attack then took over and took four wickets in three overs to reduce Australia to 27/3 at the end of the power play and 38/4 an over later. Chris Morris, getting his first international outing of the tour in the place of Dale Steyn, took two wickets in his first over and had the best figures of 2/12 from his two overs. It indicated the enormous depth the Proteas have to their pace bowling resources at the moment. Tabraiz Shamsi, also having his first game of the tour, returned an economical 1/12 in spite of having to cope with the slippery ball, and there were two wickets each for Lungi Ngidi and Andile Phehlukwayo. The Proteas thus completed a highly successful tour that saw them achieve success in both white ball formats.