Quinton de Kock hit his second successive century as South Africa handed Australia their heaviest Cricket World Cup defeat after the Proteas claimed a comfortable 134-run victory in Lucknow on Thursday.
Australia lost six wickets with only 70 runs scored after the Proteas had made 311–7. They then only tried to keep their net run rate from dropping too much.
In the end, they were out for 177 with 55 balls to spare.
South Africa won their second game in a row, while Australia has lost both of their games.
“I’d be really greedy if I said there were areas to improve, a near-perfect game with the bat, and with the ball,” said South Africa captain Temba Bavuma.
Australia skipper Pat Cummins admitted his team had been “well off the mark”.
He added: “Not much needs to be said tonight, everyone’s hurting.”
Australia lost by six wickets to India in their first game, and five catches were dropped when South Africa came to bat.
They weren’t in a better mood when they had to chase a 312-run target because South Africa’s fast bowlers kept getting rid of their top order.
First-ball openers Mitchell Marsh (seven) and David Warner (13) were sent back by Marco Jansen and Lungi Ngidi. Kagiso Rabada then quickly took three wickets.
Steve Smith was controversially out caught behind by wicketkeeper De Kock for 19. Rabada then clean bowled Josh Inglis for five runs and had wicketkeeper De Kock catch Marcus Stoinis down the legside for the same amount of runs.
Australia didn’t like the call because Stoinis’ hand didn’t look like it was on the bat when the ball hit his glove on its way to De Kock.
Around that time, off-spinner Keshav Maharaj bowled dangerous player Glenn Maxwell out, and the Australian known as “The Big Show” got stage fright and was out for only three runs.
Australia tried to limit the damage to their run rate since they still had seven pool matches to play in the marathon event and thought they had pretty much lost the game.
At the middle of the 25th over, they were down to 95-6. Then Marnus Labuschagne (46) and Mitchell Starc (27) put on 69 runs for the seventh wicket.
They both fell in the space of seven balls, and the innings ended when Tabraiz Shamsi wrapped up the tail.
De Kock, who is 30 years old, hit his 19th ODI hundred off of 90 balls, with eight fours and five sixes. He had already hit a century in South Africa’s first ODI win over Sri Lanka.
De Kock was batting at the Ekana Stadium, where he plays for the Lucknow Super Giants in the IPL. He will stop playing international cricket at the end of the tournament.
He was finally out for 109 when off-spinner Maxwell bowled him while he was trying to reverse sweep in the 35th over.
South Africa was on 197-3 when De Kock left. Aiden Markram then took over as captain.
Markram got to 56 quickly after Cummins dropped him after only making a single. He did this by taking advantage of the fact that Cummins had just dropped him when he had only made a single from 49 balls.
The Aussies had a terrible day on the pitch because Bavuma was dropped twice, on 19 and 32.
Marsh dropped Indian star Virat Kohli when he was on 12 in their first game. Kohli then made an 85 that won the game.
Bavuma’s luck ran out when Warner caught him at midwicket off Maxwell with the score 35.
The captain and De Kock put together 108 runs for the first wicket.
By the time Cummins got rid of Markram, Jansen (26) and David Miller (17) had helped the Proteas score more than 300.
Miller and Jansen were both out in the last over, which was a double-wicket maiden bowled by Starc.
They should have been out in the next-to-last over when Starc dropped Miller and Stoinis gave Jansen a chance, both off of Cummins.
Photo by Prakash Singh/Shutterstock
