{"id":907632,"date":"2026-09-27T18:06:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-27T18:06:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/907632\/"},"modified":"2026-09-27T18:06:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-27T18:06:12","slug":"south-africa-power-to-odi-series-win-as-australias-middle-order-struggles-again-cricket","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/907632\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa power to ODI series win as Australia\u2019s middle order struggles again | Cricket"},"content":{"rendered":"

Temba Bavuma and David Miller both struck centuries as South Africa defeated Australia by 32 runs in the \u2060second one-day international in Johannesburg, securing victory in the three-match series with a game to spare.<\/p>\n

Australia sent their hosts in to bat and South \u2060Africa amassed 365 for \u2060nine in their \u200b50 overs, before bowling the visitors out for 333 in 49.5 overs to win a high-scoring encounter. The Proteas continued their recent dominance over their rivals with a 19th ODI \u2060win in their last 25 meetings.<\/p>\n

The visitors were again undone by spin in the middle of the innings after a fast start to their reply as South Africa took an unassailable 2-0 series lead. Australia were not \u2060helped by the continued absence of seamer Pat Cummins, and a side strain suffered by Nathan Ellis \u200bin the match that meant he bowled \u200conly four overs.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really disappointing,\u201d \u200cthe Australia captain Mitch Marsh said. \u201cWe came here determined to level the series at 1-1 and take it \u200cinto the final game, but fair play to South Africa. I thought they played really well and outplayed us again.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just want to keep improving,\u201d Marsh added. \u201cWe certainly don\u2019t want to be whitewashed, so we\u2019ll go to Potchefstroom determined to win that final game and play some good cricket.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bavuma scored his 103 from 116 balls for his sixth ODI century while Miller was more explosive. He smashed \u200cnine sixes in his 142 from 93 balls, clearing the ropes with ease as he struck his career-best score and eighth ODI ton. Matthew Breetzke added 34 off 28 balls, with Duan Jansen ending on 27 not out.<\/p>\n

David Miller hit 21 boundaries \u2013 12 fours and nine sixes \u2013 in his knock of 142. Photograph: Sydney Seshibedi\/Gallo Images\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Jack Edwards, playing in his \u200bsecond ODI, was the pick of the Australia bowlers with five for 67 in 10 overs, including the wickets of Bavuma and Miller. Josh Hazlewood had earlier dismissed openers Aiden Markram (for a duck) and Quinton de Kock (15).<\/p>\n

In a carbon copy of Thursday\u2019s 67-run win for South Africa in Durban, Australia made a lightning start to their reply. Marsh (84 from 53 balls) and Travis Head (84 from 76 balls) put on 130 in 17 overs for the \u2060first wicket, but the middle order struggled and South Africa\u2019s three spinners tightened the \u200bscrew.<\/p>\n

Keshav Maharaj (2-54), Bjorn Fortuin (2-70) and \u200bMarkram (1-55) were all effective in \u200btheir 10 overs. Markram dislodged Head lbw before Maharaj removed Alex Carey (17) and Matt Renshaw (32), both lbw. Xavier Bartlett kept Australia in the game with a fine 50 runs \u200bfrom 28 deliveries but ran out of support.<\/p>\n

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From \u200cthe 30th over to the 40th, Australia managed 37 runs in Durban and just \u200c35 on an excellent batting wicket in Johannesburg. \u201cIt\u2019s certainly an area where we need to improve and we\u2019re well aware of that,\u201d Marsh said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought we set up our innings really well in both games but we haven\u2019t been able to execute during those middle phases. It\u2019s a \u200cgreat learning curve, especially for some of our younger players. But you also have to give South Africa full credit \u200bfor the way they\u2019ve bowled during those periods.\u201c<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was \u200canother really good \u200ball-round team performance,\u201d the Proteas captain Bavuma \u200bsaid. \u201cIt started with the bat. Conditions were a little tricky up front but we managed to get through that period and build towards a good total. David [Miller] played an unbelievable innings and then the bowlers did their job as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

The final match of the white-ball series is in Potchefstroom on Wednesday, before a three-Test series begins in Durban on 9 October.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Temba Bavuma and David Miller both struck centuries as South Africa defeated Australia by 32 runs in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":907633,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-907632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/907632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=907632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/907632\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/907633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=907632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=907632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=907632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}