South Africa are aiming for their first T20 series victory over Australia in 16 years.
Targeting a historic victory, captain Aiden Markram has warned that the Proteas can’t rely on Dewald Brevis to do most of the work with the bat in the third and final T20 International against Australia in Cairns on Saturday (11.15am start).
After losing the series opener in Darwin, South Africa hit back to win the second match by 53 runs, though they were carried by a record century produced by 22-year-old Brevis.
Aiming to win a T20 series against Australia for the first time in 16 years, Markram said they needed other batters to stand up.
“The series has been really good so far. We’ve seen some really good stuff,” the skipper said on Friday.
“I think the bowlers have been pretty good for us, and Brevis in the previous game made our batters look good, but it was very much an individual performance.
“So it will be a nice challenge for our batters tomorrow to hopefully click.”
Opening the batting
In the absence of experienced opener Reeza Hendricks, Markram had been pushed up the order in this series.
He said he was enjoying his new role alongside Ryan Rickelton, and he was likely to retain the position at the top of the line-up in the build-up to next year’s T20 World Cup.
“Just going through our squad and the players we’ve got around, we think that’s probably the best fit,” Markram said.
“We’ve got some guys in the middle order who are a lot more destructive than me, and we feel it’s probably best for myself and Ricks to be up top.
“I did it a bit in the IPL and I’m starting to do it now again in international cricket, so it’s an exciting role. It’s always nice to bat in the powerplay and our focus is to get the team off to good starts.”
