A career-best haul from veteran spinner Keshav Maharaj has inspired South Africa to a crushing 98-run win over Australia in the first ODI in Cairns.<\/p>\n
With Australia cruising at 0-60 chasing the Proteas\u2019 8-296, Maharaj wreaked havoc during a stunning spell as the hosts lost 6-29 in 55 balls at Cazaly\u2019s Stadium.<\/p>\n
The 35-year-old bowled his 10 overs unchanged \u2013 at one stage having 5-9 \u2013 to finish with 5-33. It was the first five-wicket haul of his ODI career and was aptly named player of the match.<\/p>\n
Maharaj\u2019s efforts were the fourth-best ODI numbers by a South African bowler in Australia.<\/p>\n
Prenelan Subrayen, a debutant right-arm offspinner, started Australia\u2019s collapse by having the dangerous Travis Head stumped for 27.<\/p>\n
Mitchell Marsh of Australia reacts after being dismissed for 88. Photograph: Darren England\/AAP<\/p>\n
Mitch Marsh, captain in place of Pat Cummins, played a lone hand from the top as none of Australia\u2019s middle-order reached double figures.<\/p>\n
But when he fell for 88 to Nandre Burger (2-54), it was only a matter of time before the Proteas secured victory and bowled Australia out for 198 in the 41st over.<\/p>\n
Spin, unexpectedly, dominated in Cairns, after Travis Head\u2019s part-timers also proved hard to handle.<\/p>\n
Australia\u2019s aggressive opening batter took 4-57, claiming opener Ryan Rickelton (33), as well as Tristan Stubbs (0) and rising star Dewald Brevis (6) within three balls.<\/p>\n
The Proteas need no reminder of Head\u2019s bowling capabilities after he took two crucial wickets in Australia\u2019s thrilling World Cup semi-final win in 2023.<\/p>\n
Rickelton made a productive start with World Test Championship final hero Aiden Markram<\/a>, the pair putting on 92 for the opening wicket.<\/p>\n Lungi Ngidi bowls Adam Zampa to win the first ODI in Cairns. Photograph: Darren England\/EPA<\/p>\n Markram (82) played flawlessly for his first 80 balls, but fell to a stock-standard delivery from Ben Dwarshuis (2-53) when seemingly headed for a fourth ODI century.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Subscribe to our cricket newsletter for our writers’ thoughts on the biggest stories and a review of the week\u2019s action<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n WTC-winning captain, Temba Bavuma, returned for his first match since the historic final at Lord\u2019s two months ago, crafting a patient 65 before being bowled by Dwarshuis when trying to lift the run-rate with four overs left.<\/p>\n Allrounder Wiaan Mulder, fresh off his extraordinary 367 not out in a Test against Zimbabwe last month, delivered in the final overs with a blazing unbeaten 31.<\/p>\n Earlier, South Africa suffered a major blow, losing spearhead Kagiso Rabada for the three-match series.<\/p>\n The 30-year-old will miss the 50-over games in north Queensland due to an ankle injury.<\/p>\n Australia fielded first after captain Mitch Marsh won the toss and elected to send the Proteas in to bat. When captaining Australia, Marsh has won the toss 21 times and chosen to field every time.<\/p>\n Australia opted to play Alex Carey as a specialist batter, with Josh Inglis as the wicketkeeper. But Carey and Inglis both fell to Maharaj, playing poor shots to get out.<\/p>\n The second ODI will take place in Mackay on Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A career-best haul from veteran spinner Keshav Maharaj has inspired South Africa to a crushing 98-run win over…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":357207,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4101],"tags":[1406,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-357206","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket","8":"tag-cricket","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=357206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357206\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/357207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}