Australia’s World Cup preparations have been given a timely reality check, after they were exposed by South Africa in the tri-series final in Harare to slip to No.4 on the ODI rankings.
Darren Lehmann’s side remains confident that at full strength they will be hard to beat when they host the 50-over Cup in February, but on Saturday the Proteas proved in a convincing six-wicket win that Australia remain weak against spin and reverse swing.
In the wake of resounding Test triumphs over England and South Africa this year, Australia leave Harare licking their wounds after giving up the No.1 spot to India by losing three of five one-day matches, including a humiliating defeat at the hands of Zimbabwe.
Australia can rest assured that conditions will be more to their liking for the World Cup, but Lehmann admits his team have some work to do before facing Pakistan’s spinners in a Test and limited overs tour of the UAE next month.
“It’s disappointing obviously the way we played as a whole,” said coach Darren Lehmann.
“We got thoroughly outplayed (on Saturday) there’s no doubt about that.
“It’s just going to be continual improvement of playing spin and playing reverse bowling.
“They are two things we are going to come up against in Dubai.”
Proteas spearhead Dale Steyn (4-35) instigated another Australian batting collapse in the final to compound the Zimbabwe disaster, as his ferocious speed and ability to make the ball reverse after just 28 overs left South Africa chasing just 218.
Man-of-the-series Faf du Plessis (96) combined with captain AB de Villiers (57 not out) to sink Australia with 55 balls still to spare.
It was sweet revenge for the South Africans after suffering a bitter Test series defeat on home soil back in March and taking exception to Mitchell Johnson labelling them “predictable” in the lead-up to the final.
De Villiers had a few choice words for Australia after hitting the winning runs.
“I knew it was a little bit of bait,” said de Villiers.
“Everything that I wanted to say was said on the field, and we’ll leave it there.”
Du Plessis was another to bear the brunt of Australia’s barbs during the Test series, but responded with the ODI series of his career.
The No.3 fell agonisingly short of going into the record books as the first batsman to score four hundreds in a series and just the sixth to post three centuries in consecutive innings.
Nonetheless he finished with three hundreds for the series, having previously never scored one.
Australia were left reeling at 5-115 after Steyn swooped in to knock over Aaron Finch (54) and Glenn Maxwell in consecutive balls with unplayable deliveries.
It was only James Faulkner (39) and Mitchell Starc (27 not out) who lifted Australia from complete carnage to 9-217 with a ninth wicket stand of 71.
Lehmann said Australia’s young players could learn plenty from the performances of Steyn, du Plessis and de Villiers under pressure – although he’s confident the inclusions of Michael Clarke, David Warner and Shane Watson will significantly bolster his team’s batting going forward.
