Australia win toss, elects to bat in final ODI against South Africa

Australia captain Mitchell Marsh won the toss and elected to bat against high-flying South Africa in the third and final one-day cricket international on Sunday.

South Africa has already sealed its fifth successive bilateral ODI series win against Australia with two big victories at Cairns and Mackay, beating the home team by 84 runs and 98 runs respectively.

Temba Bavuma was back to lead the Proteas after missing the game on Friday due to workload management. Matthew Breetzke, who became the first men’s players to hit four successive scores of 50-plus in his first four ODIs, was left out of the top-order and made way for Bavuma.

South Africa also rested player of the second match Lungi Ngidi, who took a five-wicket haul, and Nandre Burger as Corbin Bosch and Kwena Maphaka replaced the duo in the playing XI.

The home team, looking to avoid a whitewash, didn’t tinker with its struggling top-order batting line-up, but included Sean Abbott and Cooper Connolly in place of rested Josh Hazlewood and Aaron Hardie.

Line-ups:

Australia: Mitchell Marsh (captain), Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne, Cameron Green, Josh Inglis, Alex Carey, Cooper Connolly, Xavier Bartlett, Sean Abbott, Nathan Ellis, Adam Zampa.

South Africa: Ryan Rickelton, Aiden Markram, Temba Bavuma (captain), Tony de Zorzi, Tristan Stubbs, Dewald Brevis, Wiaan Mulder, Corbin Bosch, Keshav Maharaj, Senuran Muthusamy, Kwena Maphaka.

Associated Press