Blows to Green, Renshaw sour dead-rubber victory

Injuries to Test batters Cameron Green and Matthew Renshaw overshadowed Australia's dead-rubber third ODI victory over South Africa on a chilly and wet Potchefstroom evening.

Playing his first ODI in two years, Pat Cummins bowled with heat in his tune-up for next week's Test opener as the visitors recorded a comfortable DLS-method victory after Alex Carey (74 off 88 deliveries) and Mitch Marsh (56 off 42) fired them to 9-322.

New-ball wickets to Xavier Bartlett (2-25) and middle-over strikes from Adam Zampa (2-34) then ensured the Proteas were always well behind their target, despite Ryan Rickelton's unbeaten 71 off 81 balls.

Players left the field when rain set in around 8:30pm local time - the smoke from grilled meat on braiis stationed around the JB Marks Oval dissipating in the mizzle - in what proved a game-ending squall.

But the major implications out of Australia's final white-ball fixture were the concerns over Green and Renshaw, coming on an injury-riddled tour that also has another Test squad batter, Josh Inglis, under a cloud with a broken finger.

South Africa meanwhile had their own injury worry as Tony de Zorzi, their Test side's incumbent No.5, also went down, becoming the latest casualty of the Proteas' hamstring curse.

Green twinged his abdominal area in a dramatic sequence while he was batting, while Renshaw copped a nasty blow on the right wrist in the field.

Batting at No.7, Green was first struck in the groin by a vicious full toss from Corbin Bosch. He shook off the knock by flicking Bosch's next ball for six.

But the most troubling moment came the following delivery when Green was left clutching his lower stomach after an attempted hook to a fast bouncer, his miscue ballooning to the keeper with 14 balls remaining in Australia's innings.

The allrounder, earmarked to bowl in this match for the first time on this tour having also nursed a bad shoulder, sent down a few half-pace deliveries in the innings break under the close supervision of the physiotherapist. Clearly bothered by the injury, Green walked off the ground and did not take to the field for the rest of the evening.

De Zorzi did not bat and will be in doubt to resume his spot in South Africa's Test middle-order at Kingsmead next week, joining a string of Proteas including Kagiso Rabada and Lungi Ngidi who have fallen victim to their 'ham-demic'.

Zampa enjoyed a fruitful finish to his trip, but a drag-down to open his account spelt trouble for Renshaw, who copped a fierce Rickelton pull to his forearm standing at a close backwards square-leg.  

With Australia down to 13 available ODI squad members, one of them Jack Edwards who is nursing his own hamstring concern, it was left to recent Test team arrivals Marnus Labuschagne and Beau Webster to substitute field.

As it happened, de Zorzi's absence proved the most significant to the result as Barlett's tremendous opening spell under lights, nipping out Quinton de Kock and stand-in captain Aiden Markram, left the hosts behind the eight ball from the start.

Rickelton, after welcoming Cummins to the crease by flicking him for six over square leg, had no choice but to consolidate as wickets tumbled and de Zorzi's absence forced Bosch's elevation to No.6.

By the time the heavens opened while Cummins was in the middle of a pacey second spell, the required rate had climbed to eight-an-over.

Earlier, following a delayed start due to a sodden outfield from overnight thunderstorms, Marsh dominated the Powerplay for a third successive game, reaching his fifty from 33 balls and sharing in a 78-run stand with Travis Head from 8.4 overs.

It was another early blitz from the openers after damaging partnerships of 90 (off 9.2 overs) and 130 (off 17) in the series' opening two games.

While the middle order could not match their pace after the pair failed to push on to bigger totals, there were important hands for both Ollie Peake (48 off 53) and Carey, the former slotting into the No.4 slot occupied by the latter in the preceding match.

Peake survived a testing short-ball examination from Gerald Coetzee, who targeted the 20-year-old with some well-directed bouncers in a clear strategy to unsettle him.

The left-hander, after a couple of plays-and-misses, flayed Coetzee for a pair of sizzling cuts through the off-side and looked good value for his maiden half-century until another off-side slash was well caught by Bjorn Fortuin.

Carey started slow, surviving being given out lbw off an under-edge on 11, but grew in fluency, a scooped six off Nqobani Mokoena the highlight of his highest ODI score in two years.

Australia XI: Mitch Marsh (c), Travis Head, Cooper Connolly, Ollie Peake, Alex Carey (wk), Matthew Renshaw, Cameron Green, Xavier Bartlett, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa

 

South Africa XI: Aiden Markram (c), Quinton de Kock (wk), Tony de Zorzi, Matthew Breetzke, Ryan Rickelton, Tristan Stubbs, Corbin Bosch, Bjorn Fortuin, Gerald Coetzee, Nqobani Mokoena, Lizaad Williams

Qantas tour of South Africa 2026

All matches to be broadcast exclusively in Australia on Kayo and Fox Cricket

First ODI: South Africa beat Australia by 67 runs

Second ODI: South Africa beat Australia by 32 runs

Third ODI: Australia beat South Africa by 45 runs (DLS)

South Africa ODI squad: Temba Bavuma (c), Corbin Bosch, Matthew Breetzke, Gerald Coetzee, Quinton de Kock, Tony de Zorzi, Bjorn Fortuin, Duan Jansen, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Kwena Maphaka, Aiden Markram, David Miller, Nqobani Mokoena, Ryan Rickelton, Tristan Stubbs

Australia ODI squad: Pat Cummins (c), Mitchell Marsh, Xavier Bartlett, Alex Carey, Cooper Connolly, Joel Davies, Jack Edwards, Nathan Ellis, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Oliver Peake, Matthew Renshaw, Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa

Warm-up match: October 3-4, JB Marks Oval, Potchefstroom, 6pm AEST (10am local)

First Test: October 9-13, Kingsmead Stadium, Durban, 6:30pm AEDT (9:30am local)

Second Test: October 18-22, St George's Park, Gqeberha, 7pm AEDT (10am local)

Third Test: October 27-31, Newlands, Cape Town, 7:30pm AEDT (10:30am local)

South Africa's preliminary first Test squad: Temba Bavuma (c), Marques Ackerman, David Bedingham, Corbin Bosch, Gerald Coetzee, Tony de Zorzi, Simon Harmer, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Aiden Markram, Wiaan Mulder, Senuran Muthusamy, Anrich Nortje, Dane Paterson, Kagiso Rabada, Ryan Rickelton, Tristan Stubbs, Kyle Verreynne

Australia Test squad: Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cooper Connolly, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Matthew Kuhnemann, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Michael Neser, Matthew Renshaw, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Beau Webster