David ensures Aus beat SA in opening T20I

The hosts defeated Proteas by 17 runs to register their ninth straight T20I win

DARWIN:

Australia have won a record ninth straight T20I after Tim David's devastation with the bat was followed by Josh Hazlewood brilliance with the ball

A Tim David six-hitting masterclass and a classic Josh Hazlewood burst has opened Australia's international summer with a 17-run win in the first BKT Tires T20 against South Africa in Darwin.

David (83 off 52) rescued Australia's innings with a mix of controlled rotation of the strike and trademark belligerent hitting as wickets fell all around him.

Two hours later, Hazlewood (3-27) snared two vital wickets in the 15th over of South Africa's chase, just as the visitors had moved into the box seat. Asked to bat first for the first time in seven T20Is, Australia came out swinging and profited with a run rate above 10 per over, but lost regular wickets.

So regular in fact, the Aussies had lost six wickets before the eighth over was complete and threatened to be bowled out for under 100 as Kagiso Rabada and teenage tyro Kwena Maphaka turned up the pace.

But the red-hot David proved the difference, ultimately dismissed on 83 having struck eight sixes, after earlier being given a life by Tristan Stubbs at long on when the power hitter was on 56.

David, who punched a record 37-ball century in the West Indies last month, sent sixes to all corners of the ground and popped a ball onto the roof of the Maurice Rioli Stand.

David's commanding knock, which saw him turning down easy singles as early as the 16th over, threatened to reach three figures for the second time in three innings, but his dismissal in the penultimate over ended the entertainment for the 8,816 in the crowd. The knock lifted Australia to 178, with Green's 13-ball 35 and Dwarshuis' 19-ball 17 the next top scores.

In reply, South Africa's batters struggled to find their timing on a pitch David labelled as "two-paced" at the halfway stage, and they too lost three wickets inside the Powerplay to set their chase back.

The Proteas were in a spot of bother at 3-48 but the combination of Ryan Rickelton and Stubbs, who put on 72 runs, got South Africa into the ascendancy with six overs to go as they slowly acclimatised to conditions.

Enter Josh Hazlewood. The experienced quick flipped the complexion of the contest with a double-strike in the 15th over of the innings, claiming Stubbs caught off the under edge and squaring up George Linde to be caught at first slip.

The wicket of Linde prompted a pumped-up celebration from the 'Bendemeer Bullet', who charged through to the cordon at full pace.

Captain Aiden Markram was one who looked on for the tourists, dispatching Hazlewood for three boundaries in the chase's first over.

But an aerial cut shot, which found a stumbling Cameron Green at cover, ended his innings after just six balls.

Adam Zampa, who had struggled a touch with the dewy conditions in Darwin, grabbed two for himself in the subsequent over, clean-bowling Corbin Bosch and trapping Muthusamy lbw.

Although Rickelton (71 off 54) stayed put at the other end, he couldn't accelerate as David had done and he, along with the Proteas, ultimately fell short. It took a piece of fielding brilliance from Glenn Maxwell to end the opener's stay, with Maxwell juggling a ball over the long on boundary before expertly tossing it back to himself inside the field of play.