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Led by a second successive century in the tournament from the bat of Quinton de Kock, South Africa strolled to an easy win over Australia at the 2023 Cricket World Cup.
In a match played between two evenly-matched sides on paper, South Africa coasted to a second successive victory in the tournament and fourth in a row against the Aussies to join New Zealand, India and Pakistan as the teams to have notched up four points so far.
Inserted in to bat by Australia, South Africa were off to a flying start courtesy of the bat of Quinton de Kock, who was fluent from the word go.
He was involved in a 108-run stand for the opening wicket with captain Temba Bavuma who scored just 35 of them and took 55 balls to do so.
Rassie van der Dussen came in at three and tried to up the scoring from both ends but fell in that quest. And when de Kock, who would go on to get his second ton in as many games, departed off the bowling of Glenn Maxwell, South Africa were 197 for three in the 35th over.
🏏 HALFWAY MARK
🇿🇦The Proteas are mounting the pressure on the Aussie batters. Ngidi & Shamsi looking for more breakthroughs
🇦🇺Australia 95/6 after 25 overs
🎯🇦🇺 need 217 runs to wins📺 SuperSport Grandstand 201 and SABC 3#CWC23 #AUSvSA #BePartOfIt pic.twitter.com/Mrtpbopgzy
— Proteas Men (@ProteasMenCSA) October 12, 2023
Aiden Markram, also fresh from his century last game, hit a quickfire 56 and with some support from the lower half of the order, pushed South Africa to beyond 300.
At one stage it looked like South Africa could have got to even 340 but they were restricted to 311 for seven by some excellent death bowling on what looked to be a slowing surface.
When South Africa came on to bowl, however, it seemed like the pitch had acquired some extra zing.
Balls moved around off the pitch for their seamers and in no time both their openers, Mitchell Marsh and David Warner were back to the pavillion.
Steven Smith withstood the pace barrage of Marco Jansen and Lungi Ngidi and even got himself a few boundaries to give Australia some hope. That was quickly quashed though by a DRS-induced lbw that left a few, including the batsman and the umpire bemused.
Kagiso Rabada then cleaned up Josh Inglis and had Marcus Stoinis caught off his glove – in another contentious call – while Keshav Maharaj grabbed the crucial wickets of Glenn Maxwell and Marnus Labuschagne to land the final blows in the chase.
Labuschagne top-scored with 46 but that wasn’t enough to take Australia anywhere close to their opponent’s total, falling short by 134 runs in the end.
New Zealand face Bangladesh in the 11th match of the 2023 World Cup on Friday, October 13.
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