Key Points

David's crunchy sixes and Josh Hazlewood's (3/27) timely strikes with the ball were the major highlights for Aussies as they put the brakes on a valiant South Africa while defending 179 runs, despite a brilliant 71 (in 55 balls, with seven fours and a six) by Ryan Rickelton and his 82-run stand for the fourth wicket with Tristan Stubbs (37 in 27 balls, with five fours).

Speaking after the game, David, who had launched eight towering sixes along with four boundaries in his 52-ball 83, explained the team's game plan in T20Is. Despite being 30/3 after being put to bat first, it was David and Green who counter-attacked with a 16-ball 40 run stand for the fourth wicket, with Green contributing a quickfire 35 in 13 balls, with four boundaries and three sixes.

During the presser, David said, as quoted by ESPNCricinfo, "It is obviously not the team's plan to be four down within six overs, but that happens at times. We have got what we believe is a great calibre of batters in our batting order, and we back each guy to make the right decisions."

"We have been playing together as a group now for a while, so there's not a great deal of instruction from the coaches. They trust the players. We trust ourselves to go out there and we understand the game situation and we make decisions on the fly, because that's the nature of T20 cricket."

"I think if you have watched our guys bat over the last period, wherever they bat around the world and when they play for the Australian team, it's close to all guns blazing. So, yeah, you can probably expect to see that a little bit from our team. That is how we think we play best," he concluded.

Since last year's T20 World Cup, Australia has a powerplay (1-6 overs) strike rate of 195.92, the highest in the world. The average runs put on the board during this period is 66.52, also the highest in the world. While they have lost 29 wickets and the average wickets lost per powerplay is 2.07, with Aussies topping these two unwanted aspects too, the decision to go "all guns blazing" has paid off handsomely nonetheless.

Only England (168.84), India (155.65), and New Zealand (154.75) strike at above 150 in powerplay during the same period, while NZ and the Three Lions are losing lesser amount of wickets, with England losing 22 and NZ losing 18. India has lost a massive 38 wickets in this phase, but the Men in Blue look just as unstoppable, having lost just three out of 28 matches and won 24 since the T20 WC 2024.

- ANI