RSA VS AUS - 1st T20I, Australia tour of South Africa, 2020

So that was quite the dampener. From sandpaper talk, to talk of a belter, to talk of DLS coming in with the weather around, to talk of booing. Sadly, that's what this was, all talk. It's never fun when the preview's spicier than the actual cricket. Anyway, this was me, Vineet Anantharaman, bringing this to you in the company of Abhinand Raghavendran and our scorer Harish, and until PE with hopefully a two-team contest, ta ta!!

Aaron Finch | Winning skipper: The way we set the tone on the field was fantastic. Ashton gets the credit today; the lengths he bowled was fantastic. When you are scoring 200 the start is very important. I would have batted second as well had I won the toss, so a nice toss to lose. I thought the way we attacked the crease and the lengths we bowled was fantastic. If someone blasts a good ball off you, you take your hat off to them. I had a 10% chance of catching that (hat-trick ball) but he deserves all the credit.

Ashton Agar | MoM: It was really exciting; a highlight of my cricketing life. It was made easy by Starc, Cummins and Richardson bowling in front of me. Starc, at 150 clicks, induces fear in the opposition. I was feeling horrible at the start of the game. But with a bit of turn off the pitch your job becomes easy. Terrific catch by the skipper, he enjoyed it himself.

Quinton de Kock | Losing skipper: I am not quite sure what happened here. The energy was there but the skills just weren't enough. Obviously we try and pride ourselves with our fielding and we weren't at our best today. There isn't much you can do at practice, it has to be a mental thing for the boys. We hope to come back with that fight on Sunday.

Stats brought to you by Shashikant Singh

Biggest defeats for SA in T20Is (runs):
107 runs v AUS Johannesburg 2020*
95 runs v AUS Brisbane 2006
95 runs v PAK Centurion 2013
52 runs v AUS Melbourne 2009

Best bowling figures vs SA in T20Is:
5/6 Umar Gul Centurion 2013
5/19 Ahsan Malik Chattogram 2014
5/24 Bhuvneshwar Kumar Johannesburg 2018
5/24 Ashton Agar Johannesburg 2020*

Best bowling figures for Australia in T20Is:
5/24 Ashton Agar v SA Johannesburg 2020*
5/27 James Faulkner v PAK Mohali 2016

Lowest totals for South Africa In T20Is:
89 v Australia Johannesburg 2020*
98 v Sri Lanka Colombo 2018
100 v Pakistan Centurion 2013

21:07 Local Time, 19:07 GMT, 00:37 IST: It started with a round of boos. And it ends with a round of boos. Just that the crowd have switched sides in their booing. This was meek. Extremely meek. Agreed, you don't have much choice as a batting unit when you're going after nearly 200, but South Africa showed no spine. Take that Rabada-Biljon stand out of the game, and things would've looked worse. They were never in this. Starc roughed them up early, Cummins roughed them further, Zampa foxed around, and Agar decided to do his own bit of bamboozling in a fifer that included a hat-trick. It's not everyday that everything you touch turns to gold, and it's surely not everyday that you find an opposition hell bent on throwing it away. Such was Agar's today. Anyway, stay around, the presentations are here ..

Zampa to Rabada, out Bowled!! The skidder does it. A seeming long hop that Rabada wants to pump over deep mid-wicket with an early opened up stance and a full-blooded mow across the line. Nah. It'll stay low, go under everything, and clean up middle. So just like that, in the collapse that could never stop, South Africa have sunk to their lowest ever T20 score and their highest defeat margin. Rabada b Zampa 22(19) [4s-1 6s-2]

Zampa to Rabada, THATS OUT!! Bowled!!

Zampa to Shamsi, 1 run, shuffles inside, tickling off his legs behind square

Zampa to Rabada, 1 run, the googly. Rabada stays back, clears his front leg and stabs through point

Adam Zampa [2.0-0-7-1] is back into the attack

Agar to Shamsi, no run, pokes it away towards cover, and that's the spell. 4-0-24-5 -- equals the best figures here at the Wanderers, matching Bhuvneshwar Kumar

Agar to Rabada, 1 run, steps down, heaves, gets it into mid-wicket

Agar to Rabada, no run, floats it up on the stumps, a reaching tap back defensively

Agar to Shamsi, 1 run, rocks behind and chops away in front of point, quick legs

Agar to Shamsi, no run, almost a second hat-trick. Oh, the whisker of a save. It's the straighter one and Shamsi - no batsman - weaves away from his body and gets beaten through the bat-pad gap. Whisker