Finisher Faulkner blows nerves, SA away

James Faulkner has given a rare insight into the frenetic closing stages of Australia's thrilling five-wicket win over South Africa in Johannesburg.

Set 205 to win, Faulkner, who was playing his first match since injuring his hamstring in Auckland last month, entered the pressure cooker with five balls to spare and 11 runs required.

"I was a bit nervous coming into today's game to be honest," Faulkner told reporters afterward.

"I think knowing how good South Africa are, and obviously anything can happen in T20 (cricket), I was a little bit on edge. But I think that's a good thing.

"I think the times I do have a little bit of that in me, more times than not it's a good game and I've done reasonably well."

David Warner's match-winning 77 had just been abruptly ended, bowled by pace sensation Kagiso Rabada, when Faulkner walked to the crease to join Mitchell Marsh in front of a vociferous Wanderers crowd.

Faulkner's first ball was a wide – Rabada pitching a full yorker too far from off stump, leaving 10 runs needed from five balls.

Rabada straightened his line the next delivery which Faulkner pumped down the ground for two, with long-on and long-off combining to save a boundary and arrow the ball back to the centre square.      

Another wide followed – the 20-year-old reverting to his earlier tactic of aiming wide outside off-stump, but again, it was deemed too wide by the standing umpire.

Faulkner then peeled off a brace of doubles; the first to deep cover, the second straight down the ground, and if it wasn't for a weak return by the fielder in the deep, a lumbering Marsh would have been run out.

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With two balls remaining and three runs needed, here's where Faulkner's experience in pressure situations, the same situations he's prevailed in many times before, became priceless.

"I think it's just about taking your time. Everything sort of builds up on you quite fast at the end," Faulkner said.

"So when it came down to a couple of balls left, I was sort of considering whether I try and smack it down the ground for two, and if I don't get a two, I get a one and then it goes to the last ball and you try to take it to a super over.

"Or whether I try and hit it for six. I tried to hit it for six, I just got none of it.

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"He (Rabada) bowled quite a nice last over there I think. To defend 11 is tough work when the momentum was obviously with us."

Faulkner's attempt at ending the match with one meaty blow resulted in a thick inside edge onto his pads and into the off-side for a single.

It left Marsh, who had been sprinting like an Olympian, to take strike needing two to win or one to tie and force a Super Over.

"I just said to Mitch – 'whatever you do last ball, keep it on the carpet and I'm running'," continued Faulkner.

Using his bat as a shovel, Marsh dug out a terrific Rabada yorker, jamming down on the delivery to send it over the bowler's head and down the ground, where long-on swooped.

Faulkner, turning blind, was on his way home for the winning run as the occasion got to the fielder, who fumbled the ball to give Australia their highest successful T20 run chase.

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"We ran hard and the rest was history," he said. "What a game of cricket. Any time it comes down to the last ball … it's good to be on the winning side but it's a  great spectacle for everyone that turned out to the ground and also on TV."

The Tasmanian has been dubbed 'The Finisher' for his amazing record of icing games for Australia and hitting the winnings runs in one-day internationals.

But Faulkner says he's just doing his job, and being in the middle of the action at the end of the innings comes with the territory.

"It's a hard one to sort of explain. I said it all along, probably the last 12 months in particular, that's the role I play with bat and ball," he said.

"There's going to be times when I look a bit silly and everyone at home and at the ground are thinking 'what is he doing?'.

"But there are other times when you look good.

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"That's my role in the team and whether I get a duck or I get 10, 20 or 50, as long as we're winning I'm a happy man."

Faulkner says a win like that, chasing an imposing total with an intimidating audience against you, will give Australia a lot of confidence moving forward.

But he's not looking too far ahead yet with the deciding T20 to be played in Cape Town on Wednesday before the team flies out to India for the World T20.

"We are in a current series and we levelled it, we needed to level it otherwise the last one would have been quite a flat feeling," he said.

"At the moment our priority is to give this series a real crack and attack the third match.

"Then we'll worry about India.

"It's hard to not think about it, but the thing you can think about is that the conditions are completely different over there and everyone knows that.

"We'll just stay in the present then we'll cross that bridge when it comes over in India."