Half-century from Shane Watson helped Australia make an encouraging start to their tour of South Africa as they won the opening Twenty20 in Cape Town by five wickets. The teenage debutant Patrick Cummins collected three wickets as South Africa reached 146 for 7, led by a solid innings from JP Duminy, and the target wasn’t enough to prevent Australia from turning around their recent poor T20 form.
Although Australia’s chase was on track for most of the innings, a couple of good late overs from Morne Morkel and Lonwabo Tsotsobe gave South Africa a sniff in the dying stages. Australia needed six from the final over, bowler by Rusty Theron, and a single from Matthew Wade was followed by a square-driven boundary and a single from Steven Smith to get Australia home with three balls to spare, their second win from their past nine T20s.
It was also their second win under the captaincy of Cameron White, who took over from Michael Clarke in January. White made a valuable contribution of 28 from 22 deliveries to keep Australia’s chase ticking along, and David Hussey’s 25 was also important, until he skied a slower ball from Tsotsobe in the second last over.
Watson helps Australia win T20 opener
