Australia vs South Africa: Twitter erupts as Australia loses seven consecutive ODIs in a row
It seems as if the Australian team is yet to recover from the ball-tampering fiasco due to which they lost their two best batsmen. After being outclassed by Pakistan in Test and T20Is in the United Arab Emirates, the Aussies wanted a quick turnaround but that did not happen even with the home advantage.
After winning the toss, South Africa asked the home team to bat first. The South African pace attack ran through the Australian batting lineup in no time. Star South African speedster Dale Steyn was the first to create impact by picking up the wickets of Travis Head and D'Arcy Short in his second over.
Lungisani Ngidi joined the party by sending back Australian captain Aaron Finch to the pavilion. Even before the completion of the sixth over, the three quick wickets reduced Australia to 8-3. Chris Lynn and Alex Carry tried to rebuild the innings but their 28-run partnership lasting over 10 overs was broken by Andile Phehlukwayo who got the wicket of the former.
Phehlukwayo added two more wickets to his tally by picking up the wickets of Glenn Maxwell and Marcus Stoinis. Australia was reduced to 89 for 7 but a 31-ball 34 from Nathan Coulter-Nile helped his side go past 150-mark. While Imran Tahir chipped in with a couple of wickets, Ngidi got the wicket of a dangerous looking Coulter-Nile and bowled Australia out in the 39th over.
In a bid to chase down, Australia's 152, South African openers gave their team the best possible start as they put together 94 runs for the first wicket. After Quinton de Kock got out, Aiden Makram joined Reeza Hendricks in the middle.
Marcus sent back the two settled batsmen for Hendricks and Markram were dismissed by Marcus Stoinis for 44 and 36 in the 22nd and 28th overs respectively. Stoinis also got the wicket of Heinrich Klaasen but the game was already in the visitors' basket. Thanks to the great start, South African chased down the target in less than 30 overs.
Here's how Twitter reacted to Australia's seventh consecutive ODI loss: