There are two phases for the South African ODI team - the tournament phase and the bilateral series phase. In the bilateral phase, the One-Day team has found ways to win crunch games. They find themselves with an array of match-winners tussling to contribute.
In the tournament phase over the years, the squad has tended to look worn out and short of ideas. The match winners who play crucial knocks in the bilateral series look out of sync and fail to produce defining performances.
However, this has not always been the case. Australia have been one opponent they have struggled against in tournaments as well as in bilateral series. Their last ODI series win, before the ongoing series, against Australia dates back to 2009, where the spin duo of Johan Botha and Roelof Van der Merwe gave South Africa an incredible series victory at home.
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The two bilateral series in between have been dominated by Australia, who won 2-1 in 2011 and 4-1 in 2014 respectively.
This series has, however, been a different one. The man who steals all the sport headlines in the country, AB De Villiers, is missing due to injury, yet, South Africa find themselves 3-0 ahead already. De Villiers has been the architect of the majority of South Africa's ODI series wins in the last decade.
His sheer presence adds value beyond measure to this line-up. His average is well beyond 50, yet it does not do justice to his contribution to South Africa's ODI fortunes.
He has a averaged above 40 every year since 2008 and has a strike rate of 99.87. Five of the top six fastest hundreds by South Africans belong to De Villiers. He holds the World record for the fastest 50,100 and 150 in ODIs. Is there anything this superman cannot do?
Such has been his presence in the middle order that the shortcomings of Faf Du Plessis, David Miller and JP Duminy, who form the crux of the middle order, have gone unnoticed. But all of that has vanished in this series and South Africa have managed to trump Australia in all departments in this series.
Let us take a look at the factors that have accounted for South Africa's dominance in this ODI series, despite the absence of their superhuman machine.
#1 Strong starts
The openers, De Kock and Rossouw in the first two games and Amla and De Kock in Durban, have provided scintillating starts at an explosive run rate. In the first game at Centurion, the opening partnership was worth 145 in just 17 overs and that paved the way for an easy chase of 295. De Kock was the architect of that victory with his 178, but Rossouw, returning to the side after an injury lay-off, contributed a quickfire 63 in 45 balls.
In the second game at Johannesburg, the same duo made 70 in 10 overs before De Kock miscued a hit to mid-on. Rossouw, however, carried on his good form and scored 75. The platform set by them helped Faf and Duminy launch South Africa's total past 350.
In the third ODI, Amla replaced Rossouw at the top and blazed away to 45 in 30 balls. De Kock and Amla looked unfazed by the daunting target of 372, and smacked 66 in 8 overs before Amla was dismissed by Hastings. De Kock continued to pile on the misery for Australia as he made 70.
#2 Australia's lacklustre pace attack
It is strange that the same set of pace bowlers, who were bowling for Australia A few months back, are now in the International setup together. We are talking about Daniel Worrall, Chris Tremain and Joe Mennie. The trio had so much success with Australia A that they were drafted in for this series, in place of Mitchell Starc, James Pattinson and Josh Hazlewood, who are out injured.
Sadly, they have not been able to replicate their performances at the International stage.
Worrall has conceded 128 runs in 16.2 overs in this series, without taking a wicket. Tremain, meanwhile, has been taken for 143 in 20 overs with just two wickets to show for. Mennie has not been picked after being carted around for 82 in 10 in Johannesburg.
The experienced duo of Hastings and Mitchell Marsh have also not been able to contain the run flow.
#3 Lack of Off-Spinners
The South African top six has four left-handers- Quinton De Kock, JP Duminy, Rilee Rossouw and David Miller- none of whom are prolific players of spin. The only mainstream spinner in the Aussie squad is Adam Zampa, who is a leg spinner that turns the ball into the left-handers. They have utilised the part-time offie, Travis Head, sparsely but he is just not good enough to fill in for a proper spinner.
Australia might be left rueing their decision to leave Glenn Maxwell out of the side. Apart from his ability to smash big sixes, his off-spin against a crowd of left-handers would have been more than handy. Another option would have been to include a frontline off-spinner in Nathan Lyon, but Zampa has been just too good in recent times to be ignored.
Duminy, Miller and Rossouw are infamous for their weaknesses against off spin bowling and considering they have played vital roles in at least one of the three matches in the series emphasises the fact that Australia miss an off break bowler.
#4 Form of Faf du Plessis and JP Duminy
Faf du Plessis has been in very good touch in this series and looks like he is enjoying the additional responsibility of captaincy. He has captained well but more importantly he has tried to not get bogged down at the wicket, a trend he acquired in the last one year, that has slowed down South Africa's momentum after the departure of an opener.
In this series, Faf has looked more positive and contributed vital runs. His century in the second ODI was top notch, once again proving his worth in that middle order, especially in the absence of AB.
Duminy has come in for a lot of criticism of late for his wretched form with the bat. However, he has made use of some good starts by the top order and lazy bowling by the Aussies to get his touch back.
The left-hander’s 82 in the second ODI at Johannesburg propelled South Africa to a match-winning total. He has also got his flight with the ball back and produced a vital breakthrough in the second ODI by dismissing a dangerous looking Warner.
The fact that he has been able to contribute with at least five overs economically while taking a wicket or two augers well for South Africa. He picked up a four wicket haul, recording career-best figures, in the ODI against Ireland preceding the Australian series.
#5 An array of all-rounders
When Chris Morris was out injured, South Africa seemed to have lost their balancing act. Morris has filled in at that no.7 slot so convincingly that no one else has even got a good run there, since the 2015 World Cup.
He has contributed heavily with the ball too, and for the first time South Africa looked like they had recovered from the loss of a certain Jacques Kallis.
But his injury seemed to have given an early advantage to the Aussies. However, the young Andile Phehlukwayo, Wayne Parnell, JP Duminy and Dwaine Pretorius have made up for the loss.
While Parnell has been particularly impressive with the ball, Phehlukwayo has stunned everyone with his temperament, especially in his crucial 42 with Miller in the third ODI. He also picked up a four-wicket haul on debut against the Irish. Duminy has also found some turn with the ball and seems to have recaptured some of his flair with the willow.
#6 Three spectacular knocks
Despite the contribution from other 10 players, at least one player has stood out in each game for South Africa, with the bat. If it was De Kock with his 178 at Centurion, it was Faf at Johannesburg and Killer Miller at Durban.
De Kock's powerful array of strokes left Australia exhausted and clueless. His range of strokes is amazing and his power with the bat, for someone so small, is unbelievable. His 178 single-handedly took South Africa past the 295 target in the first ODI.
Faf Du Plessis loves the Australian attack and the Johannesburg ground. He has centuries in all formats of the game at the venue and his rich vein of form against the Aussies continued in the second ODI. His brilliant century powered South Africa to a huge total that proved too much even for a strong Australian batting line-up.
In the third ODI, David Miller came in at no.6 and played the innings of his life to power the second highest run chase in ODI history. His 69 ball hundred will go down into the history books as one of the best centuries in a run chase.
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