'Small margins': South Africa captain Aiden Markram opens up after series defeat to Australia

South Africa captain Aiden Markram acknowledged small margins led to their defeat as Glenn Maxwell's unbeaten 62 guided Australia to a narrow two-wicket win in the final T20I at Cazalys Stadium on Saturday. The victory secured a 2-1 series win for Australia."Good game of cricket, ended up on the wrong side unfortunately. Small margins. Not enough on the board tonight, but we fought well with the ball. Not the way we wanted to end, but still some good things to take from this series," Markram said after the match.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!Australia, chasing 173, struggled at 122/6 when Maxwell took control of the game. His 36-ball innings featured eight fours and two sixes, culminating in hitting the winning runs off the second-last ball. The match marked Cazalys Stadium's first men's T20I, with captain Mitchell Marsh earlier contributing 54 runs off 37 balls in a 66-run partnership with Travis Head.South Africa gained momentum by taking three wickets in 13 balls during the middle overs. However, Maxwell's strategic batting in the final overs secured the win for Australia.After being asked to bat first, South Africa posted 172/7. Brevis led the scoring with 53 from 26 balls, following his century in the previous match. Despite losing Markram early, Lhuan-dre Pretorius scored 24 runs in the powerplay. Brevis's aggressive batting helped reach 108/3 by the 11th over."Not many people can do what he (Brevis) does and he is a very special player and works really hard on his game. We kept improving and there is plenty of good for us to take from this series, but never great to lose it," Markram said.The turning point came when Brevis mistimed a slower delivery from Nathan Ellis to long-on. Australia's bowlers, including Ellis (2/29) and Adam Zampa, restricted South Africa to 64 runs in the final nine overs through effective death bowling.