The depth of Australian cricket was on display again tonight as opening batsman Jimmy Maher made a well-paced 94 to guide Australia A to victory over South Africa in their day-night limited overs match at Adelaide Oval.

Sam Lienert10-Jan-2002The depth of Australian cricket was on display again tonight as opening batsman Jimmy Maher made a well-paced 94 to guide Australia A to victory over South Africa in their day-night limited overs match at Adelaide Oval.It followed Tuesday’s comfortable win over New Zealand in Brisbane, giving the second-string Australian side a clean sweep of its matches against the touring sides.Maher’s innings, which took 120 balls and included eight boundaries, set up tonight’s win, which came with five balls to spare and five wickets in hand.Wicketkeeper Ryan Campbell added the finishing touches, with an unbeaten 20 from 16 balls, which included a six over cover and a four through midwicket fromthe 48th over, bowled by Jacques Kallis.South African captain Shaun Pollock won the toss and elected to bat first in near-40 degree temperatures, but the Proteas’ top order failed badly.Australia A opening bowlers Nathan Bracken and Jason Gillespie both took early wickets and leg spinner Stuart MacGill claimed a wicket with his second ball ofthe match, in the 24th over, to reduce South Africa struggling to 5-79.Bracken finished with 2-28 from eight overs and Gillespie 1-28 from his 10.But a 94-run sixth wicket partnership between Jonty Rhodes (69 from 97 balls) and Pollock (56 from 76 balls) at five per over helped the South Africans to acompetitive total.Australia A captain Darren Lehmann broke the partnership, having Rhodes caught at deep midwicket, then fellow part time left arm spinner Simon Katich took three late wickets as South Africa finished at 9-215 from its 50 overs.Lehmann and Katich finished with 4-33 between them from six unremarkable overs.Australia A lost the early wicket of Greg Blewett (five), but Maher and Katich combined for a 55-run second wicket partnership dominated by the Queenslander.Maher and Lehmann (41 from 57 balls) then put on 72 for the third wicket.Maher’s innings involved one moment of controversy when he survived an appeal for obstructing the field while on 92.The two umpires conferred after he made contact with bowler Makhaya Ntini, who was attempting to gather a ball close to the wicket while the batsmen took asharp single.But it did not alter the course of the match, with Maher out two balls later after skying a ball to mid-off from the same bowler without a run being added.Mike Hussey was unbeaten on 25 from 28 balls and hit the winning boundary through mid-on to complete an unbeaten partnership of 37 from 27 balls withCampbell.”It was a good performance against a quality side. They were going flat-out, we were happy to be able to chase 215 on and up-and-down wicket,” Lehmann said.”Jimmy Maher held the innings together and Hussey and Campbell played really well at the end.”Lehmann also praised the bowling of Bracken and Gillespie and said the fact they were in the A-side rather than the senior Australian side was a testament to thenation’s depth.”Australian cricket is in a really good position, hopefully the number one side can play really well over the next few weeks and keep that roll going,” he said.