Cairns, Aug 16 (IANS) Australia’s T20 skipper Mitchell Marsh was full of praise for seasoned player Glenn Maxwell, after he was back to his well-known best during the third and final T20I against South Africa on Saturday, sealing a 2-1 series victory on Saturday.

Chasing 173 for victory, Australia looked in trouble at 122/6, before the big-hitting Maxwell took charge with an unbeaten 62 off 36 balls, laced with eight fours and two sixes at a strike-rate of 172.22. He held his nerve to strike the winning runs off the penultimate ball of the chase and roared in delight after conjuring up a remarkable rescue act.

“Obviously, it’s always nice to win the close ones in T20 cricket, and it was a little bit unorthodox, but I’m very thankful that Max got us over the line. You never know what’s going to happen, that’s for sure, but he’s a world-class player, and he’s been so flexible. I think he’s batted in three different positions in each game and we’re just lucky to have him, he does everything and he was class tonight,” said Marsh.

The man of the match admitted it was ‘nerve-wracking’ being out there in the middle, and admitted it was nice to steer the team to victory. “It was a little bit nerve-racking. I think when we lost a couple of wickets in a row, Corbin Bosch bowled a brilliant over to sort of keep the run rate sort of near nine or ten and we were down the two wickets and I probably had to do the majority of the striking but it was it was nice to get a couple out of the middle right near the end.”

Player of the series Tim David acknowledged he might not have received the honour of winning the award had it not been for Maxwell’s ‘blinding innings.’

“I think obviously without Maxi playing a blinding innings tonight I wouldn’t be standing up here, so there’s been contributions from everyone in our team throughout this series and we’ve had so much fun,’ said David.

Earlier, South Africa posted 172/7 after being asked to bat, with Dewald Brevis top-scoring with 53 off 26 balls. South Africa made a shaky start after skipper Aiden Markram was dismissed in the very first over, but Lhuan-dre Pretorius counter-attacked with five boundaries in the Power-play before falling to Nathan Ellis for 24.

Brevis picked up from where he left off in the previous game, where he scored a blistering century — striking the ball cleanly and clearing the ropes at will to race to a rollicking fifty laced with a four and six sixes. It meant South Africa were well-placed at 108/3 at the end of the 11th over, with a score of 200 on the cards.

–IANS

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