Australia drew first blood in the five-match One-Day International series against South Africa with a three-wicket win in Bloemfontein on Thursday night.

The win means the five-time World Champions have managed to break their eight-match losing streak against the Proteas in the format in South Africa.

The Proteas were asked to bat first at the Mangaung Oval and a slow start with willow and a lack of any real partnerships on a tricky wicket led to the home team being dismissed for a mere 222-runs in 49 overs.

The captain, Temba Bavuma, played a captain’s knock in the City of Roses by scoring a patient and well-worked 114 not out. Towards the backend of the innings, the left-arm seamer Marco Jansen scored 32-runs, and this was the only noteworthy score in the South African innings. The next highest score was 19-runs by Aiden Markram.

The Australian seamer, Josh Hazlewood, was brilliant with the ball upfront and in his first four overs he bowled 21 dot-balls to put pressure on the South African batters. He ultimately ended with 3/41 in his compliment on 10 overs.

Australia’s innings got off to a shaky start with Jansen bowling David Warner out with the second ball of the innings, and at the stage they were in deep trouble at 96/3 after 13.5 overs.

The replacement batter, Marnus Labuschagne, who came in as concussion replacement for the allrounder, Cameron Green, dug his heels in and played a man of the match innings of 80 not out, while the spinner Ashton Agar contributed with a fine 48 not out. The pair steered Australia to the target in 40.2 overs.

Kagiso Rabada was the pick of the Proteas bowlers with 2/48 in 9 overs, while Gerald Coetzee took 2/44 in 7 overs.

Speaking after the match, Bavuma said they were given a sniff to win the game, but failed to wrap-up the tail, and these opportunities need to be used.

“If you get a team in that position, you expect yourself to be able to clean out the game,” said the skipper who scored back-to-back tons in Bloemfontein.

“We speak about being relentless and when you get given a sniff against a team like Australia, you've got to take it. If the situations were reversed, they would have prided themselves on cleaning up the game.”

The 2nd ODI of the series will be played on Saturday at the Mangaung Oval in Bloemfontein.

Morgan Piek OFM Sport