Proteas cruise to win over CA XI

The scorecard: South Africa 5-201 (Markram 45, Klaasen 41; Sandhu 1-18) beat Cricket Australia XI 7-160 (Ross 40, Bryant 36; Morris 2-35) by 41 runs

The match in a tweet: Proteas tune up for Aussies in style with 41-run thrashing of CA XI

The heroes: In a bowler-heavy line-up, not one South African reached a half-century, but bat still dominated ball as Aiden Markram (45 from 26), Heinrich Klaasen (41 from 23) and Reeza Hendricks (39 from 38) put on a spectacular exhibition of T20 batting. As CA XI captain Ben McDermott rotated his bowlers regularly, the Proteas batsmen found the small confines of AB Field to their liking, picking off boundaries with ease and particularly targeting the gap over cover that remained wide open for both pace and spin.

The moment: McDermott had one aim before this match: don't get run out. The big-hitting batsman was looking to push his case for a starting spot for Australia in his home town, the Gold Coast, on Saturday night against this same opposition, but just four balls into his innings, it all went horribly wrong. Incredibly, for the fourth time in as many T20 matches – the first three for Australia, no less – McDermott was run out, this one perhaps the cruelest of them all as he was left stranded short of his ground at the non-striker's end when a straight drive from Max Bryant clipped the fingers of bowler Lungi Ngidi and ricocheted onto the stumps. The 23-year-old threw his head back in frustration and was left with no option but to trudge off the field, wondering what might have been on a good batting strip and a big total to chase. 

The shot/s: Klaasen's innings included an audacious treble of switch hits from the off-spin of Chris Green, which went four, six and four. The first two were hit cleanly over midwicket (formerly cover) and the third sailed over short backward square's (formerly short third man's) head. 

The consolation efforts: In a bowling line-up that conceded 201, Gurinder Sandhu was notably tidy with 1-18 from three overs, while with the bat, Alex Ross (40 from 35) and Max Bryant (36 from 22) both earn honourable mentions.  

The stat: Perth Scorchers quick AJ Tye had a day to forget, getting pummeled for figures of 0-55 from his four overs. Tye was seized upon first by Aiden Markram, who hit him for two sixes and two fours in the space of eight balls, then Farhaan Behardien, who hit him for another pair of maximums in the final over of the innings. For context, the right-armer has never conceded 50 in a KFC Big Bash match … though he did go for 1-64 earlier this year for Australia when New Zealand hammered 6-243 in Auckland. 

The wash-up: A good hit-out for a bunch of Proteas batsmen ahead of Saturday night's clash with the Aussies. Not such a good outing for Tye or McDermott, who endured difficult days, while Jason Behrendorff (1-25 from three overs) bowled full and fast and will hope he did enough to push his claims for an international recall.  

Gillette T20s v South Africa and India

Gillette T20s v South Africa 

November 17: Metricon Stadium, Gold Coast

Gillette T20s v India

November 21: The Gabba

November 23: MCG

November 25: SCG

Australia T20 squad: Aaron Finch (c), Alex Carey, Ashton Agar, Jason Behrendorff, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Chris Lynn, Glenn Maxwell, Ben McDermott, D'Arcy Short, Billy Stanlake, Marcus Stoinis, Andrew Tye, Adam Zampa.

South Africa T20 squad: Faf du Plessis (c), Farhaan Behardien, Quinton de Kock, Reeza Hendricks, Imran Tahir, Heinrich Klaasen, Aiden Markram, David Miller, Chris Morris, Lungi Ngidi, Andile Phehlukwayo, Dwaine Pretorius, Kagiso Rabada, Tabraiz Shamsi.

India T20 squad: Virat Kohli (c), Rohit Sharma (vc), Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Dinesh Karthik, Rishabh Pant (wk), Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Washington Sundar, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Umesh Yadav, Khaleel Ahmed.