South Africa vs Australia 2018: 5 positives for the Proteas

The emergence of Keshav Maharaj as a match-winner

Keshav Maharaj- The match winner

The emergence of Keshav Maharaj as the frontline spinner in the side, who gets important wickets at crucial times is possibly the biggest positive for South Africa from this series.

Keshav Maharaj is generally used to hold one end up while the fast bowlers attack from the other end. He does the holding job rather well with him usually not leaking too many runs. But in this series, we got to witness Keshav Maharaj’s ability to possibly be a match-winner.

The fact that the likes of Usman Khwaja and Shaun Marsh struggle against spin is a known thing, but the excellent way in which Maharaj built the pressure through the series where he managed to get both of them out many times fending to the slips was great to see.

In conditions suiting the fast bowlers, rather than just being in the shadows, Keshav Maharaj has shown that he can be a wicket-taker and a match-winner in his own right. This is really good news for South Africa, we will have to see if the spinner can be a force to reckon with when the Proteas play in the sub-continent in the future where he will be expected to strike more often.