WRONG SIDE OF HISTORY
Australian cricket’s year of misery continued in Hobart yesterday after a record 252-run stand from Faf du Plessis and David Miller at Bellerive — the biggest partnership ever scored against Australia in 50-over cricket — sealed the ODI series victory for South Africa.
FAF du Plessis’s incredible personal dominance over Australia continued as the South African antagonist blitzed the record books in Hobart.
With the ODI series on the line, du Plessis made the most of a life on 29 to orchestrate the biggest partnership ever scored against Australia in 50-over cricket.
Du Plessis and South African white-ball specialist David Miller combined for a stunning 252-run fourth-wicket stand at Bellerive that eclipsed the 237-run partnership Sri Lankan pair Marvan Atapattu and Sanath Jayasuriya piled on at the SCG in 2003.
It was a stunning performance that dragged South Africa out of the mire at 3-55 in the 16th over, to slowly put Australia in a stranglehold before exploding to add 130 from the final 10 overs and set the host a target of 321 to win the series. In one of the most emphatic finishes to an innings, du Plessis and Miller slaughtered 57 runs from the 47th, 48th and 49th overs, before newly promoted opener Chris Lynn and Aaron Finch came and went without a whimper to leave Australia in major trouble in reply.
Du Plessis smashed a scintillating 125 runs off 114 balls, to mark his seventh hundred against Australia from an overall tally of 19 internation- al tons across all formats. Against Australia, one of the game’s true pantomime villains averages 48, and against the rest of the world, 42.
He is a man of the big moments but, in the end, he may have been trumped by partner in crime Miller who racked up his highest international score with a breathtaking 139 off 108 balls.
Between them they slammed 28 boundaries and put six more over the fence.
And to make matters worse, Australia was left to rue a pivotal moment where wicketkeeper Alex Carey put du Plessis down early in his innings standing up to the stumps to Glenn Maxwell.
The luckless Maxwell was left devastated again when a decision-review bungle by umpire Aleem Dar gave Miller the chance to review an lbw shout on 41 and somehow wiggle off the hook.
At the time, South Africa was 3-133 and Miller took 19 seconds before asking for a review — which is four seconds more than the official limit allowed. But the review was allowed and as a second dagger blow, the decision-review system mysteriously showed a ball that looked plumb sailing over the stumps.
For du Plessis, it was his first visit to Hobart since he skippered the South African side which inflicted one of the most horrific losses in Australian Test history two years ago.
It was the beginning of the end for Australian cricket, and out of it Rod Marsh resigned as national selector and five players were axed including wicketkeeper Peter Nevill, out of a desire to put more mongrel into the dressing room.
Chief executive James Sutherland and high-performance boss Pat Howard took the extraordinary step of personally giving players a dressing down in the rooms.
It was a low point, but cricket’s recent cultural review argued that some of the messages from that fateful match may have planted the seeds which led to the depths of Sandpaper-gate earlier this year.
The dominion du Plessis holds over Australia with his personal performances is simply stunning.
Du Plessis saved a Test match in remarkable circumstances with a ton on Test debut in 2012 and, in total, seven of his 19 international hundreds across all formats have come against Australia.
Just 4948 fans were at Bellerive last night as further stinging evidence of how far Australia may have fallen in the eyes of the public as it fights to restore pride and popularity.
The average attendance for this three-match series is roughly 15,000 but that’s still superior to the 12,000 average which attended the last ODI series against South Africa in November 2014.