South Africa batting first against Australia in the preliminary round of the Double Wicket World Cup, currently being played at the Beausejour Cricket Stadium in St. Lucia, could not have asked for a more disastrous start to their innings.

In the very first over of the match, Allan Donald lost his wicket without any runs being on the board. In this form of the game of cricket where wickets carry a high premium, teams can ill-afford to lose wickets.

Both Steve Elworthy and Allan Donald batted steadily to reach 40 runs, but both lost their wickets several times via the run out route, and at the end of eight overs found themselves in the ignominious position of ending up with a net position of -10 runs.

Australia in their reply were steady, but cautious. Both Greg Blewett and John Davison seemed content to get the singles and the twos. Blewett, playing a rather careless shot was bowled by Elworthy.

Australia eventually won the second match of the preliminary round of matches by 37 runs, having scored 27 runs in reply to the South Africans' -10. John Davison got 26 runs, while Gregg Blewett managed to get -4 runs.

For the South Africans, Steve Elworthy had bowling figures of 4-0-13-1, and Allan Donald got 4-0-23-0.