Australians 329 (Cummins 59*, Hendricks 5-83) and 140 for 5 (S Marsh 39*, Olivier 4-79) beat South Africa A 220 (de Bruyn 46, Cummins 4-32) and 248 (von Berg 52, Starc 4-46) by five wickets
Four second-innings wickets from Mitchell Starc were the highlight of the third day’s play in Benoni, where the Australians wrapped up victory over South Africa A by five wickets. Resuming on 55 for no loss, South Africa were bowled out for 248, leaving the visitors a target of 140 that they chased down in 29.3 overs.
Each of Starc’s wickets was of a top-five batsman. His wicket of Pieter Malan, in the fourth over of the day, ended an opening partnership of 62 with Zubayr Hamza. There were two other significant partnerships in South Africa A’s innings – 60 for the fourth wicket between Khaya Zondo and Senuran Muthusamy, and 81 for the eighth between Malusi Siboto and Shaun von Berg. Seven batsmen got to 20 but only Von Berg, who smashed 52 off 43 balls, got to a half-century. This reflected a larger trend across the match – it would continue through the Australians’ chase as well – which saw 24 scores of 20 or more but only two half-centuries.
Shaun Marsh top-scored in the fourth-innings pursuit of 140, scoring an unbeaten 39 to guide the Australians home. Cameron Bancroft (22) and Smith (25) also spent decent lengths of time in the middle, but Peter Handscomb failed for the second time in the match, bowled by Duanne Olivier – who picked up four wickets to go with two in the first innings – for 5.
Source: ESPN Crickinfo