South Africa will host Australia in the inaugural Twenty20 International (T20I) of the three-match series at Kingsmead Durban on Friday.
The Proteas seem to have an edge over Australia as they won three of its last four T20I series. Australia, on the other hand, lost its last T20 series at its homeground. The three match series also offers an opportunity to both sides to fine tune their plans ahead of International Cricket Council (ICC) T20 World Cup 2016. The global T20 tournament, starting next week, will be played in India.
Watch the live stream and videos of first T20 match here, here and live scores here, here, here. The 20-over match starts at 6 p.m. local time (4 p.m. GMT/11 a.m. ET/8 a.m. PT) on March 4.
South African main strike bowler Dale Steyn is returning to international cricket after a gap of two months. Steyn had been out due to a shoulder injury. Head coach Russel Domingo said Steyn's return was a massive plus for squad.
"A hungry, fit, energised Dale is a massive plus for us. He hasn't played for South Africa for a long period of time and he has come here with a great attitude. He is desperate to play, desperate to do well, he wants to win a World Cup, he wants to be involved in all formats of the game, so his energy levels are right up there and that bodes really well for us," Domingo said.
"He is an experienced bowler, whether he is bowling four overs or 10 overs in one-day cricket, so it's not a big train smash for us," Domingo explained.
Australian skipper Steven Smith admitted that they have been inconsistent this this format of cricket over the last couple of years.
"For us it's about playing some T20 cricket together, we haven't played a great deal of T20 over the last couple of years so it's a great opportunity for us to try and gel together as a unit before the World T20," Smith said.
The Probable Squads
South Africa: Faf du Plessis, Hashim Amla, Quinton de Kock, AB de Villiers, David Miller, JP Duminy, Farhaan Behardien, Kyle Abbott, Dale Steyn, Kagiso Rabada, Imran Tahir, Rilee Rossouw, David Wiese, Chris Morris, Aaron Phangiso
Australia: Steve Smith, David Warner, Shane Watson, Peter Nevill, Mitchell Marsh, Andrew Tye, Josh Hazlewood, Ashton Agar, Glenn Maxwell, Adam Zampa, John Hastings, Usman Khawaja, James Faulkner, Nathan Coulter-Nile
