Australia v South Africa Second ODI Report Card

Featuring deja vu and deja vu

Deja Vu
Grade: D

Second verse, same as the first. Did you see in the first ODI how South Africa batted first, and despite threatening at one stage to power past 300, fell short of that mark, only for it to prove more than enough for a stumbling Australian batting lineup that crashed almost a hundred runs short of the target, with one of the South African bowlers picking up a splendid five-fer?

You did?

Then you also saw the second ODI. Not so much deja vu, as dejSAvAU.

Sure, there were a few differences. Ben Dwarshius was out of the eleven, for example, dropped or rested or missed the flight to Mackay.

He was replaced by Xavier Bartlett, who dismissed both South Africa openers cheaply to give Australia early hope. Yet another example of Xavier adding to the attack his trademarked ‘B factor’.

Deja Vu
Grade: Whatever it was the first time

But otherwise it was mostly the same. Alex Carey ran around in the outfield, buoyant and relaxed, as he did in the first match. In fact, Carey looks so chill running around in the outfield that I hereby vote that whenever he’s not burdened with the pressures of keeping, we call him Alex Carefree.