Cameron Green found out he was batting first drop “one ball before Heady got out”. Three overs later the 24-year-old was sprinting off the outfield having belted Australia’s second-fastest one-day hundred, a 47-ball onslaught that set up 431 for 2 and a comfortable victory over a callow South Africa attack in Mackay.
The all-rounder has grown used to abrupt changes this winter. Shunted to No.3 in the Test side, then trialled at No.4 in T20 cricket, he has largely just cracked on. This latest switch, he admitted, came with minimal warning. “I think it always happens like that,” he smiled afterwards. “You make a decision that doesn’t effect on-field, but for some reason it does. The next ball I was in, so it took me a while to get ready.”
Green began by skipping down the pitch to Keshav Maharaj – nemesis of game one – and drilling a boundary past long-off. He never dipped below a run-a-ball and, as the field spread, the gap only widened. “I think it is that mindset of when you switch positions, kind of your role does change,” he said. “Instead of maybe nudging it around, maybe getting Bison [Marsh] on strike, I think it was just get out there, get on with it straight away.”
The innings included eight sixes, one courtesy of the new “no bunny-hop” law. Dewald Brevis leapt from beyond the rope at long-on, palmed the ball back, but – unlike the old days – the strike now counts as six. A minor quirk, yet another sign the white-ball game keeps shifting under the players’ feet.
There was tactical thought, too. Facing Senuran Muthusamy in the 45th over, Green declined an easy single to hold the strike, the same move Tim David has used in recent T20Is. Three balls disappeared over the short leg-side boundary. “We were discussing it before Tim David did it in West Indies,” Green said. “If you get a really good match-up I think the bowler likes when a single gets hit, for example. Try and make the most of the short boundary.”
His hundred slotted between two Glenn Maxwell specials on Australia’s fastest-century list. Maxwell, along with Steven Smith, is unlikely to be around for the 2027 World Cup, so Green’s rise matters more than a dead-rubber demolition usually would. Even so, wiser heads cautioned against reading too much into one afternoon against a depleted opposition on a true surface.
Australia’s first-innings totals in the opening two matches had been modest and anxiety about the 50-over side’s depth still exists. Mitchell Marsh and Travis Head at least offered further reassurance with a 212-run opening stand – Head’s 142 an overdue release of pressure, Marsh’s tempo continuing its upward trend.
From a bowling perspective Australia remain a bowler light once the three frontline quicks are rested, and fielding standards dipped in game two, but those are issues for another day. This match was really about Green: the footwork down the track, the willingness to target his preferred bowlers, the calm acceptance of a role he did not expect when he laced up his boots.
It is, of course, easier in a free-hit fixture. South Africa’s attack was missing four first-choice seamers and the humidity eased as dusk approached. The visitors’ decision to chase backfired when the pitch quickened under afternoon sun. Yet you still need a player to cash in, and Green, as he has for most of this year, took the brief and ran with it.
Whether the national selectors now see him as a permanent No.3 is an open question. A home summer brings different pitches, different opponents and the small matter of two looming World Cups, T20 and 50-over. For now the coaching staff are simply pleased he keeps ticking unfamiliar boxes.
If nothing else, Green has shown an appetite for learning on the fly. That may turn out to be the most valuable skill of all.
