The first match of Australia against South Africa is being played, know the match report

Six Australian hitters who will challenge South Africa

Australian international cricketer Travis Head and his South African international cricketer Kagiso Rabada, know whose side is getting stronger now..

The return of international cricket to Darwin

There was a bit more riding on the result when these two teams met at Lord’s a few months ago, where South Africa wrote a new chapter in their history by claiming the World Test Championship title.

The series is very much a stepping stone to the next global tournament: the T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka in February.

Both sides are in T20 mode. Australia recently thrashed the West Indies 5-0 where their batting prowess was on display – and has been strengthened further for this series by the return of Travis Head – while South Africa were part of a tri-series in Zimbabwe where they fell short in the final against New Zealand with an experimental side.

Some key names return for the trip, notably captain Aiden Markram and fast bowler Kagiso Rabada, but it also continues to explore South Africa’s depth and potential options ahead of the World Cup, while also getting more games in players like Luan-Dre Pretorius, Dewald Brewis and Kwena Maka.

“The Zimbabwe [T20I tri-series] was a valuable exercise and we obviously want to build on the good things, especially in the form of our two young batsmen and someone like Kwena as well to continue to grow his stock in T20 cricket,” coach Shukri Conrad said.

Australia are making a surprising comeback across all formats with Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc continuing to rest ahead of the home summer, while Josh Hazlewood is back, although he is likely to manage his workload.

However, Nathan Ellis’ performance is raising the question of whether it is time to permanently split the big three in this format.

Another notable aspect of the opening matches of this series is that it sees the return of international cricket to Darwin, Australia’s top-end city, for the first time since 2008, when Bangladesh were the visitors.

The opening match is going very well and the second match on Tuesday is also heading in the same direction. The city is a potential host for a Test match against Bangladesh next year as Australia’s home season extends into the northern summer.

People’s attention is on Mitchell Marsh and Dewald Bruins.

Australia’s batting order came together impressively in the West Indies, but captain Mitchell Marsh was the one player who made 81 runs in five innings. With so many T20Is ahead for Marsh that won’t be a major concern – and he’s at the top with Head – but if Marsh falls short of runs it would be an unwanted distraction, especially given the plethora of top-order options.

There were some promising signs for Dewald Brewis in the Zimbabwe tri-series as he finished as South Africa’s leading run-scorer with 133 runs at a strike rate of 187.32, although he failed to see them through to the final.

It was Brewis’ first T20I since his debut, which came against Australia in 2023, a year after he scored an astonishing 162 off 57 balls in the domestic one-day competition. South Africa have clearly marked him as a potential World Cup player in the middle order.

Let’s know the match pitch report.

Given that Darwin is effectively resuming as an international venue after such a long hiatus, there is some uncertainty as to what the conditions will be, although on the surface there should be nothing unpleasant.

The forecast, for both matches, is good with a mild, dry evening.

Some highlights of the match

The last time Darwin hosted an international match, Australia was led by Michael Clarke.

The two teams have not met in T20Is since 2023, when Australia won 3-0 in South Africa.

Maxwell needs four wickets to reach 50 in T20. He would become the fourth male player to score 2500 runs and take 50 wickets in the format.

Since the start of 2024, Australia has the highest batting strike rate in T20Is.