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Rossouw’s 122 thrusts SA to 5-0 whitewash
- Updated: October 12, 2016
South Africa 327 for 8 (Rossouw 122, Duminy 73, Miller 39, Mennie 3-49, Tremain 3-64) beat Australia 296 (Warner 173, Tahir 2-42, Abbott 2-48) by 31 runs Live scorecard and ball-by-ball details
South Africa inflicted a first-ever five-match ODI series whitewash on Australia with an tense victory that underlined the main difference between the two sides. Not only was Australia’s inexperienced attack unable to challenge South Africa’s batsmen, but their batting line-up, bar David Warner, could not keep up either.
Warner scored his second century of the series and was Australia’s only real hope of pulling off the highest successful chase at Newlands to take home a consolation win. His 173 was six short of a career-best, but could have ended on 11 when he edged Kagiso Rabada to slip. Quinton de Kock dived in front of Hashim Amla and spilled the chance. Warner made South Africa pay, but he lacked proper support.
Aaron Finch partnered Warner in a 72-run opening stand, but a double strike from Imran Tahir and a wicket to Andile Phehlukwayo saw Australia lose three wickets for just two runs. Travis Head then shared a 90-run fifth-wicket stand with Warner, but by then the required run rate had escalated to over eight an over with 23 overs left.
South Africa had not scored that quickly at any stage but were consistently attacking, thanks largely to Rilee Rossouw. Brought into the squad as a replacement player and used in every match, he topped up on his twin half-centuries from the opening two matches by reaching three figures in this one. Rossouw shared in a 178-run fourth-wicket stand with JP Duminy to account for more than half of South Africa’s total – the second highest at Newlands.
The most impressive aspect of South Africa’s performance was how easily runs came. Upfront, Quinton de Kock and Hashim Amla began in imperious fashion against an inconsistent Australian new-ball attack without John Hastings. Despite being the most experienced member of the pack, Australia chose to rest him and give Joe Mennie another run, and it proved a decent decision.
Mennie recovered from his nightmare debut to pick up two quick wickets. After de Kock chipped a catch to short cover off Boland, Mennie bowled …
