Australia look to end 21 month wait for ODI series win against South Africa
AUSTRALIA desperately needs a win its three-match ODI series against South Africa to not only lift some of the smog that has hung around the team since the dark days of Cape Town, but to end a woeful run in 50-over cricket.
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TWENTY-ONE months – that’s how long it has been since Australia’s men’s team last celebrated a one-day international series win.
Since that 4-1 series win over Pakistan at home, Australia has lost 16 of the 18 completed ODIs it has played. The six most recent defeats have come on the bounce.
That’s a win-loss ratio of 0.125 since the final ODI against Pakistan. No team in the world has fared as poorly in this period.
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In this time the country has suffered bilateral series defeats to New Zealand, India and England twice, and exited the Champions Trophy at the group stage.
Aside from the Champions Trophy, where rain scuppered two of its three games, Australia could hardly be said to have been unlucky in any of those campaigns. In New Zealand the Australians sunk to a 2-0 series defeat and in India they lost 4-1, before suffering their first ODI series defeat at home since 2010, sinking to a 4-1 loss to England.
Five months later they flew to England and suffered a 5-0 series defeat, taking them to nine losses across 10 matches against their traditional rival – the gap between the world’s best one-day team and its sixth a chasm.
That was Australia’s first campaign since the Cape Town ball-tampering saga and Justin Langer’s first series as the country’s official coach. His captain was Tim Paine that series but it will be Aaron Finch this time around, with the keeper dropped from Australia’s ODI and Twenty20 outfits.
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Together, Langer and Finch are tasked with digging Australia out of arguably the deepest hole it has ever been in in the format. Not since 1990 has Australia had to wait so long to lift an ODI series trophy and its current run of four consecutive bilateral series (minimum two games) defeats is the worst it has ever had. With the World Cup now less than seven months away it is a slide they will want to halt as soon as possible.
There’s also the fact the men’s team desperately needs a win to lift some of the smog that has hung around the sport since the dark days of Cape Town. Serendipity has seen to it that the side’s first match under the magnifying glass of the home summer is against the same opponents at Perth Stadium this Sunday.
They may have gone down to the Prime Minister’s XI in Canberra, but the Proteas remain a serious force to be reckoned with even without the injured Hashim Amla and JP Duminy.
With Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood all back in action, Finch will be hoping to keep the likes of Quinton de Kock and Faf du Plessis quiet while he and the batsmen try to do the same against an attack – Imran Tahir, Dale Steyn, Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi – every bit as impressive as Australia’s.
Fail to do so, and 21 winless months will become two years in January when Australia has its next ODI series, against India.
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Squads
Australia squad: Aaron Finch (c), Josh Hazlewood (vc), Alex Carey (vc), Ashton Agar, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Pat Cummins, Travis Head, Chris Lynn, Shaun Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, D’Arcy Short, Marcus Stoinis, Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa
South Africa squad: Faf du Plessis (c), Farhaan Behardien, Quinton de Kock, Reeza Hendricks, Imran Tahir, Heinrich Klaasen, Aiden Markram, David Miller, Chris Morris, Lungi Ngidi, Andile Phehlukwayo, Dwaine Pretorius, Kagiso Rabada, Tabraiz Shamsi, Dale Steyn.
Fixtures
Game 1: November 4 at Perth Stadium, Perth 2.20pm (AEDT)
Game 2: November 9 at Adelaide Oval, Adelaide 2.20pm (AEDT)
Game 3: November 11 at Bellerive Oval, Hobart 1.50pm (AEDT)
FORM
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Originally published as Australia look to end 21 month wait for ODI series win against South Africa
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