MARNUS TARGETED AS AUSSIES LEFT CHOKING
AUSTRALIAN players were left spluttering and feeling unwell after the bushfire smoke that had stalked them all summer finally caught up with them in South Africa.
Captain Aaron Finch was making no excuses for a sluggish Australia’s shock 74-run loss to a depleted Proteas outfit in the first one-day international in Paarl at the weekend, but admitted players found the conditions oppressive as veldt fires continued to rage across the surrounding mountains.
For Australia it was a case of jumping from the frying pan into the fire, after the bushfire crisis threatened cricket matches in Canberra and Sydney all summer, only for it to be in Paarl that the national team finally got stung by thick smoke engulfing the ground.
“It was very smoky out there. It probably hit us a little bit towards the back end of that innings,” Finch said.
“A lot of guys coughing and not feeling great now. But it’s no excuse at all. We were just outplayed.”
As fires burnt on the hill near the ground, Australia’s innings was smouldering into the dirt, with Steve Smith (76) unable to stop the visitors collapsing for 217.
Australia had South Africa on the ropes early at 1-0 and then 3-48, only for the Proteas to launch a counter attack through Heinrich Klaasen, who made a superb maiden international hundred.
It was enough to throw Australia’s much-vaunted attack off course, and in the end 291 was too much to chase down.
“South Africa have got a great record against us in the recent past in this format of the game. It’s something that we need to address,” Finch said.
Meanwhile, the ground in Paarl provided perhaps the most willing atmosphere the Australians have faced in their return to South Africa for the first time since Sandpapergate.
And although Smith and David Warner were targets, most of the heat was aimed at Marnus Labuschagne.
Born in South Africa before emigrating to Australia aged 9, Labuschagne spent the afternoon on the fence being sledged in Afrikaans. Labuschagne said before the match he does still speak some Afrikaans, having retained it from his younger years.