South Africa vs Australia, 3rd ODI at Potchefstroom, SA v AUS, Sep 12 2023 - Match Result

John: "So are we still just going to hand the Aussies the World Cup like we were a couple of hours ago, or shall we all now turn up in India?!!" That may be something to ponder over for the next couple of days, when these two teams face off again. Hope to see you then. Goodbye for now from me, Ekanth, my co-commentator Andrew McGlashen, and our scorers, Sudeep Poojari and Thilak Ram.

Temba Bavuma, SA captain: Happy with the end. We needed a positive one to keep the series alive. Lot of positives. Batters knuckled down. Bowlers hung in quite well. Banked on the wicket assisting spin. I thought about 320 was par at the end of our innings. Ball nibbled a bit early on. We gave ourselves extra leeway to take risks after good partnerships early. We lost a few wickets which pegged us back but thought 320 was par. We knew what was coming, so lack of experience is not the issue. It's all about learning as quick as you can. As much as the powerplay didn't go as we wanted, out bowlers plugging back is exactly what we wanted. Spinners doing well is massive. We haven't seen conditions like these where we could go with two frontline spinners. Aiden did well with the new ball as well. We look for versatility from spin and hope the quicks do well too. Series is still alive, we've got a notch up today and want to keep raising the bar.

Aiden Markram, POTM: It's nice to contribute to a win and keep the series alive. Challenging, it was quite stoppy. Always learning on the job in conditions like this. We had some good partnerships which helped get to a nice total. In the initial 10 balls or so, I wasn't fluent. But it was great to be there till the end. I was trying to think the whole time, in the last over, I swung a bit too hard. Guess hundred was meant to be.

Mitchell Marsh, Australia captain: There were errors with bat and ball on which we could have improved. We go to Joburg (Centurion) 2-1. I thought 290-300 was par. Thought I misread it a little bit, it spun. Markram showed his class. No doubt we'll be exposed to such conditions in the World Cup. We've generally played spin well, hope this was just a slip-up and we can jump back.

Jaison: "The unlikely sequence of events started with a "shoe""

7:52pm: A comprehensive 111-run win for South Africa, seemed difficult to imagine a couple of hours ago. But an unlikely sequence of events followed. Warner being run out was the turning point. His shoe came out when he attempted a run and a direct hit from Maharaj had him packing. Australia were crusing at 157 for 2 in the 19th over when it happened. Ten-and-a-bit overs later, they were languishing at 200 for 8. The spinners, Shamsi in particular, was instrumental. Shamsi finally got the better of Marnus with sharp spin. De Kock's stumping to get Stoinis with the foot raised for a split second at most, was a highlight as well. Maharaj and Coetzee took over to dismantle the lower order.

Anjum Kabir: "And SA win by a nelson!!"

StevO: "Noooooooooooooooo!!!! HAZLEWOOD the villian.... What could have been..."

StevO: "Awesome!! The sequence is alive! If just somehow Hazlewood could manage -1 or negative 1 runs haha.. Never seen a scorecard so symmetrically beautiful high to low!"

Yushey Al Tusi: "StevO got the 0 he wanted"