South Africa v Australia, 3rd T20I: Aus complete another successful chase to win T20I series against SA 2-1

After Australia clinched a thriller in the second T20I at Johannesburg, it was the Newlands Stadium in Cape Town that would decide who won the T20I series between South Africa and Australia. And it was Australia who held their nerves to complete yet another successful chase to win the T20I series ahead of the World T20.

South Africa made three changes to their side that lost the second T20I, bringing in Hashim Amla, Rilee Roussow and Kyle Abbott in place of AB de Villiers, Farhaan Behardien and Chris Morris. Australia, in their quest to find the right opening pair, dropped Aaron Finch, Ashton Agar and Josh Hazlewood and brought in Usman Khawaja, Adam Zampa and Nathan Coulter-Nile.

The home side won the toss and elected to bat first and Quinton de Kock and Amla took the Proteas off to a flyer as they put together a 47-run partnership in just 4.1 overs, de Kock the first man who was dismissed.

Captain, Faf du Plessis, who was South Africa's best player in the previous match, failed to perform in the crunch game as he got out only after making 4 runs. Roussow gave good support to Amla, who seemed to be in sublime form, and played a brilliant knock despite his partner struggling. Roussow departed after making a 21-ball 16.

David Miller helped accelerate the run rate as Amla and he scored 50 runs in just 5 overs. Miller scored 30 of those runs, off just 16 balls, thus helping his side reach a competitive total of 178.

Amla scored his highest score in the shortest format of the game, falling just three runs short of his T20I ton to remain unbeaten on 97 off 62 balls, hitting 8 fours and 4 sixes.

Coulter-Nile picked up two wickets for Australia while Shane Watson and James Faulkner picked up one wicket each.

In reply, the Australian opening pair of Watson and Khawaja powered their side to a score of 76 in 8.2 overs. Watson hit 2 fours and 3 sixes on his way to scoring a 27-ball 42 while Khawaja scored 33 off 25, giving able support to his partner.

After Imran Tahir removed both the openers in the same over, it looked like South Africa would claw their way back into the match. However, the next pair of captain Steven Smith and David Warner, who came to bat at No.4 again, shared a match-winning partnership between them to lift their side closer to a series win.

Warner was run-out in the 17^th over, but, not before he done the damage along with his captain after the duo scored 79 runs in just over 8 overs. Smith was dismissed in the very next over by Kagiso Rabada, who gave the Proteas just a glimpse of hope to clinch the series.

Glenn Maxwell, who came to the crease after Warner's dismissal was on it right away as he scored 19 runs off 10 balls to help Australia avoid any late embarrassment. Mitchell Marsh scored the winning runs after hitting a boundary off the very first ball he faced, giving Australia a great 2-1 comeback win in the series in South Africa.

Brief Scores: Australia 181/4, 19.2 overs (Smith 44, Watson 42; Tahir 2/38) beat South Africa 178/4, 20 overs (Amla 97*; Coulter-Nile 2/36) by six wickets.