News Top Night

The Australia cricket team outplayed South Africa in the Super Eights of ICC World Twenty20 played at R Premadasa Stadium, Colombo, Sri Lanka.

The Australian team won the match by 8 wickets. And, once again it was all-rounder Shane Watson, he played superb cricket both with bowl and bat.

Shane Watson bowled superbly and took two important wickets of opener Amla and South African captain. While, batting, he played a knock of 70 runs from just 48 balls hitting 8 fours and two huge sixes.

Earlier, Australian captain George Bailey won the toss and elected to bowl first.

South Africa lost early wickets, and made just 146 runs in 20-overs. Leg-spinner Xavier Doherty also did the damage, taking three wickets for 20 runs in 4 overs.

Batting second, Australia lost opener David Warner for just 5 runs, but Watson and Hussy played good cricket.

South African captain AB de Villiers said, “Very disappointed. Just frustrating when we don’t click. I just can’t put my finger on one thing, it went wrong everywhere. They didn’t allow us to get off to a flier and we lost quite a few wickets and that didn’t give us the momentum. Watson is a class player. It’s not all doom and gloom, hopefully we’ll win on Tuesday.”

Australian captain George Bailey said, “A tough call to make for a winning team, but Doherty really helped put South Africa on the back foot. The way Shane, Mike and Warner have been batting, chasing has gone very well for us. 146 was about par. Great start for Doherty, he was brought in to pick some early wickets against batsmen who like the ball to come on a bit more.”

Man-of-the-Match, Shane Watson said, “Nice to be able to continue to play well. I know how important my role is. It’s still a hell of a long way to go. Facing Steyn and Morkel was going to be a very big challenge. I knew if we got through the first four overs, we had to take on a few other bowlers but it was going to hold momentum for the innings. Hussey stabilised the innings. The top four batsmen are the ones who win you games consistently. Hussey took the pressure off me to score.”

Australia

George Bailey (C), Shane Watson, David Warner, Mike Hussey, Cameron White, Glenn Maxwell, Matthew Wade, Brad Hogg, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Xavier Doherty.

South Africa

AB de Villiers (C), Richard Levi, Hashim Amla, Jacques Kallis, JP Duminy, Farhaan Behardien, Wayne Parnell, Johan Botha, Robin Peterson, Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel.