Australia couldn’t have asked for a better start to their World Cup campaign after they restricted South Africa to 118/9 in 20 overs in Abu Dhabi. After winning the toss, captain Aaron Finch put the Proteas into bat and the Aussie bowlers capitalised on that decision in the most fascinating way.
Left-hander Mitchell Starc went for a few runs in the first over but Glenn Maxwell and Josh Hazlewood soon pulled things back in their favour. Maxwell removed a dangerous-looking Temba Bavuma for 12 off 7 and Hazlewood got into the act to scalp important wickets of Quinton de Kock and Rassie van der Dussen for 7 and 2 respectively.
The South African team then lost Klassen when the team score read 46 but got some resistance from Aiden Markram and David Miller as the right-left duo put 34 runs for the fifth wicket.
But Miller was eventually trapped in front of the stumps by Adam Zampa for 16 to break the shackles. While Markram held the fort from one end, he kept losing partners at the other side and was sent back in the end by Starc for a 36-ball 40 to leave the side tottering at 98/8. Later, Kagiso Rabada chipped in with some runs after he remained unbeaten at 19 off 23.
Starc, Hazlewood and Zampa scalped a couple of wickets apiece while Maxwell and Pat Cummins picked up a wicket each.