Cricket Aus XI beat South Africa in T20

Match-winning captain Ashton Turner believes Cricket Australia XI’s surprise win over a second-string South African side on Sunday may have left the Proteas a little underdone heading into far more important fixtures this month.

The Proteas were hoping for a strong showing to gain early momentum ahead of three T20 internationals against Australia this week followed by five one-day encounters and ultimately the ODI World Cup in February and March.

Instead, the tourists struggled without many of their holidaying stars as Australia’s emerging XI secured a 22-run win at North Sydney Oval.

First-time national captain JP Duminy was South Africa’s only Test and one-day regular playing on Sunday, but only managed eight runs as the Proteas were dismissed for 167 chasing 190 for victory.

“When you go away on tour, you want to go into the first game with some runs under your belt,” Turner said after blasting 73 off 45 balls before putting the breaks on South Africa’s run chase with two key wickets in three balls in a game-changing three-over spell.

“A lot of their guys will go into the first Twenty20 against Australia without runs so that’s only good for Australia, I would have thought.”

Duminy admitted the tour-opening defeat was “disappointing”.

“At times, our execution wasn’t on par,” he said.

“But I think the plans that we had in place were good.

“For a first time out as a young sort of unit, I was pretty happy with what we dished up today.

“Yes, obviously there are areas we can improve, especially with the bat. The first 10 overs we didn’t put partnerships together.

“But there’s a lot to learn there and we’ve got two more practice sessions to put it together and hopefully we come out firing on Wednesday.”

While Duminy was the biggest name on display, it was the opposition captain who stole the show, with Turner starring with bat and ball.

After setting up the win with his boundary-filled knock, the West Australian pinned South Africa’s top-scorer Rilee Rossouw LBW for 47 while trying to reverse sweep before also deceiving David Miller with his off spin two balls later.

“Coming over for a one-off game like this, it’s not much fun flying home if you haven’t got any runs,” Turner said.

The double breakthrough left the Proteas reeling at 4-78 and needing almost two runs a ball off their last 10 overs.

They didn’t look like getting close until World Cup hopefuls Ryan McLaren and Wayne Parnell shared a dangerous 42-run partnership to dramatically improve the Proteas’ equation.

But their hopes were dashed when McLaren (26 off 17) fell to Timm Van der Gugten and then Parnell, who hammered 35 off just 12 balls, holed out in the deep off Ben Ashkenazi’s bowling.

While the quicks completed the kill, Turner’s fellow spinner James Muirhead also grabbed the attention of national selectors with 3-25, with Duminy his most prized scalp.

Earlier, after losing the toss and being sent in to bat, the Cricket Australia XI took advantage of the short boundaries at the picturesque ground to amass 5-189 from their 20 overs.

Apart from the skipper’s three sixes and seven fours, opener James Pierson belted one delivery over mid-wicket and into the barbecue stand, while Sebastian Gotch (40 off 25) monstered a straight drive right out of the ground during his 88-run stand with Turner.

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