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Cape Town - South Africa’s Farhaan Behardien was delighted with his team's defence of 189 against Australia, and said the Proteas were confident of defending a small target on a tough Guyana deck.
Behardien made 62 of the Proteas' 189 runs, batting with the tail for much of the innings, and given none of the tri-series games had been high-scoring affairs at Providence Stadium, he was confident in the bowlers.
The Aussies had Aaron Finch scoring 72 of his side's 142 runs, but the rest of the top nine batsmen failed to reach double figures. Kagiso Rabada's 3/13, and Wayne Parnell's 2/23 ensured a lack of recovery.
“The chat (during innings break) was to hang in there and we had a score to bowl at. We knew that the Aussie team is full of confidence but we knew that 190 would be tough,” said Behardien.
"They didn't struggle too much getting the score the other night against the West Indies but it was tough.
"The first eight overs, Parnell and Kagiso bowled really well and got those three wickets which put Australia on the back foot.
"So the chat halfway through was that we had given ourselves a chance and if you bowl really well, which we did tonight, we can win the game and I'm very glad that we did. It's not easy beating the Australian team.
"I thought it was one of those wickets where there was quite a lot happening. Finchy played an unbelievable innings considering the conditions. But we always felt that we were in the game.
"We went with quite a bold game plan with three spinners, and it paid off on a wicket that offers some assistance for the spinners."
Of his own patient innings, Behardien said it was good to get a valuable score after copping a lot of criticism for his place in the side, especially on such a difficult wicket.
He added: "It's nice to get a score for the team. There was a middle-order collapse against Sunil Narine, he kind of got stuck into us on that particular day.
"Personally, to be out there and grind it out for nearly 30 overs and... the trend of white-ball cricket over the last year has just been of big scores and free-flowing batting innings and sixes and fours.
"So for me to pull out that performance was pretty satisfying."
