“It’s very satisfying when a plan comes together,” said Keshav Maharaj after claiming five wickets in his first 25 balls to rip through Australia’s top and middle order on the way to guiding South Africa to an emphatic 98-run victory in the first of three one-day internationals at the Cazarly’s Stadium in Cairns on Tuesday night.
His astonishing spell saw the hosts collapse from 61-1 to 89-6 and effectively ended the game as a contest, although Australian skipper Mitch Marsh battled doggedly for his 88 to limit the damage and add some respectability to the margin of defeat.
What made Maharaj’s first ODI five-fer even more remarkable was that no assistance was required from any of the fielders, not even the wicketkeeper. Three clean bowled and two lbws. It was all the evidence needed to confirm that Maharaj was beating all the batsmen in the air as well as off the pitch.
They simply could not ‘read’ his length, all playing either on the back foot or trapped in the crease rather getting onto the front foot.
“That’s true,” said Marsh after the game. “Hats off to him, you have to give credit where it’s due. He bowled superbly and we didn’t have the answers tonight.”
'PUT THE BALL IN THE RIGHT PLACE'
So what was ‘the plan’ – and how did Maharaj make it work so spectacularly? “First thing to say is that sometimes you can put the ball in the right place but you don’t get the rewards!
“When you bowl with over-spin the ball ‘drops’, as spinners say, especially with a newer ball, but once I saw that there was a bit of spin I tried to use my pace and a bit of angle at the crease and, fortunately, I put the ball in the right place and did get the rewards.
"It happens a lot more with the new ball and, as we saw, it happened less as my spell went on and the ball became older,” Maharaj explained.
Keshav Maharaj reflects on a spell to remember. 🎙
— Proteas Men (@ProteasMenCSA) August 20, 2025
A composed and clinical performance under pressure saw him claim his maiden ODI five-wicket haul against Australia in the series opener. 🔥🇿🇦 #WozaNawe pic.twitter.com/6Mpw8gYTtx
The theory is nothing new – but there have been fewer better illustrations of its success than Maharaj on Tuesday whose figures, including the wicket of Marnus Labuschagne with his first ball, at one point read 4.1-1-13-5 before finishing with 10-1-33-5.
ALWAYS LEARNING
“A lot of people ask me ‘what’s next?’ but, although I’m 35 now, I believe in my journey and I’m always learning – the day I stop learning is the day I have to walk away from the game. I like to think I’m a scholar of the game, I watch a lot of cricket and I’m always bouncing ideas around, even with the younger generation, because it’s good to see how different ways of thinking can work,” Maharaj said.
“I’d like to think I’m getting better with age, but it’s years and years of hard work, from the age of 15 and then into first-class cricket, and it’s coming to fruition now.
Apart from completing the full ‘set’ of five-wicket hauls – in all three formats at both domestic and international level – he also became the first South Africa spinner to claim over 300 international wickets across the three formats:
“I didn’t know that so, thanks for that! There is a lot more I want to learn and to try and win more trophies with the team – hopefully I can keep raising the bar for the next spinners coming through the system,” Maharaj said.
The ‘learning’, by the way, has resulted in the development of a new, ‘mystery ball’ – not that he needed it on Tuesday night: “I didn’t think the pitch demanded me to bowl it yet, it’s still a work in progress, but if the next venue allows me to then, maybe I will reveal it,” he said with a smile.
Favourite wicket of the five? “It’s always nice to hit the stumps but the ball to Marnus was an absolute snorter, and it was also the first ball of the spell, and we all know how dangerous he can be so, I’ll have to say that was my favourite.”
