It's a storming start for Proteas' debutants

JP Duminy captured the kernel of his team's stunning performance in the first T20 against Australia in Adelaide yesterday with the words: "Not much thinking goes on; it's just about playing."

And play they did. First, Kyle Abbott delivered a demon spell to take 3-21 as Farhaan Behardien, Quinton de Kock and Duminy punctuated a razor-sharp fielding display by taking fine catches. That limited Australia to 144/6.

Then SA, after losing debutant Reeza Hendricks to the third ball of their reply, knocked off the target with seven wickets standing and an over to spare.

A second-wicket stand of 129 between De Kock and Rilee Rossouw got most of the job done. De Kock's 46 flew off 39 balls, but for once he was upstaged - Rossouw drilled his 78 off 50 deliveries, seven of them smacked to the boundary and three over it.

Abbott's figures were his best in his three T20s, while Rossouw was playing his first match for SA in the format. Their success in the face of their inexperience was not lost on series captain Duminy.

"It's great to see the youngsters come through," he said.

"After losing a wicket in the first over, you feel 145 is a long way away. But the positivity they played with was great to watch. Russell [Domingo] calls it 'the exuberance of youth'."

That was especially apparent in the field, where even the geezer of the side, 35-year-old Imran Tahir, responded to dropping a catch in the deep offered by Cameron White off Abbott with the fourth delivery of the match by throwing himself around the park with vigour every time the ball sought him out.

But his error was lost in the slew of chances the Aussies spilled.

Yesterday's result all but obliterated memories of SA's defeat by a young Cricket Australia XI in a T20 warm-up game on Sunday.

Another performance like yesterday's in Melbourne tomorrow, and Duminy and the kids - and Tahir - will have a series win in their kitbags.