After coming up short in the second T20I against South Africa, Australia's assistant coach Andrew McDonald said that promoting Alex Carey in the batting order felt right during the chase.
His remarks came as Australia lost the second T20I by 12 runs. This win enabled the Proteas to level the three-match series with the decider to be played at Newlands in Cape Town.
Wicketkeeper-batsman Carey batted at number six in the first match of the series but he was elevated to number four at St George's Park, swapping places with Matthew Wade.
"We felt that was the right move at the right time and Justin and Aaron pulled that move. Hindsight will tell you whether it was right or wrong," cricket.com.au quoted McDonald as saying.
"Wadey's quite flexible; we've seen throughout his career that he's batted anywhere between one and seven. So we feel as though he had the flexibility to finish off the innings with Mitch Marsh and that's the way we went," he added.
Australia was 98/2 in the 13th over when Carey went out to bat. However, he just managed to score 14 runs from ten balls.
After his dismissal, Australia kept on losing wickets at regular intervals and David Warner was left stranded at one end.
"It was seen that Shamsi was in some way controlling the tempo of the game through the middle overs there so that move was made. The move only happens when you lose a wicket," McDonald said.
"Carey went in and the view was that he was the best player of the spin in the middle overs to do that," he added.
Australia will now take on South Africa in the series decider on February 26.
( With inputs from ANI )
