Quinton de Kock on Thursday hit his second successive century at the World Cup as South Africa sent five-time champions Australia crashing to a 134-run defeat.
After the Proteas had made 311-7, Australia lost six wickets with just 70 on the board and then focused solely on attempting to limit the damage to their net run rate.
They were eventually dismissed for 177 with 55 balls to spare.
Photo: AFP
For South Africa, it was a second win in two games, while Australia have lost both of their matches.
“I’d be really greedy if I said there were areas to improve, a near-perfect game with the bat and with the ball,” South Africa captain Temba Bavuma said.
Australia skipper Pat Cummins admitted his team had been “well off the mark.”
“Not much needs to be said tonight, everyone’s hurting,” he said.
Australia, who lost by six wickets to India in their opener, saw five catches dropped when South Africa batted.
Their mood did not improve once they began chasing a 312-run target, losing wickets on a regular basis as South Africa’s fast bowlers ripped through their top order.
Marco Jansen and Lungi Ngidi sent back openers Mitchell Marsh (7) and David Warner (13), before Kagiso Rabada took three quick wickets.
Rabada had Steve Smith leg before wicket controversially on review for 19, clean-bowled Josh Inglis for 5 and had Marcus Stoinis smartly caught down the leg-side by wicketkeeper De Kock, also for 5.
Australia were unhappy with the decision as Stoinis appeared to have his hand off the bat when the ball brushed his glove on its way to De Kock.
In between, off-spinner Keshav Maharaj claimed Glenn Maxwell off his own bowling as the Australian nicknamed “The Big Show” suffered stage fright and was out for just 3.
With the match virtually lost, Australia went into damage limitation mode, hoping to ease the damage to their run rate with still seven pool matches to play.
At the halfway stage of 25 overs, they had crept to 95-6 before Marnus Labuschagne (46) and Mitchell Starc (27) put on 69 for the seventh wicket.
They fell in the space of seven balls before the innings collapsed with leg-spinner Tabraiz Shamsi wrapping up the tail.
Earlier, 30-year-old De Kock reached his 19th one-day international century off 90 balls with eight fours and five sixes, having also made a century in South Africa’s opening win over Sri Lanka.
De Kock, who is to retire from international cricket at the end of the tournament, was batting in familiar surroundings at Ekana Stadium where he plays in the IPL for the Lucknow Super Giants.
He was eventually dismissed for 109, bowled by off-spinner Maxwell while trying to reverse-sweep in the 35th over.
Wilyer Abreu watched the ball leave the park and tossed his bat high in the air. His Venezuela teammates streamed out of the dugout in celebration. The comeback was on and the win over the reigning World Baseball Classic (WBC) champion Japan was within reach. Japan, their 11-game WBC winning streak on the line, held a 5-4 lead in the sixth inning of Saturday’s thrilling quarter-final matchup when Abreu put his team ahead with the biggest swing of the game: a three-run shot off Hiromi Itoh that sent the loanDepot Park crowd into a passionate roar and helped seize Venezuela’s 8-5
A BREATHLESS BATTLE: France clinched the championship in a vicious back-and-forth match with England, denying Ireland the title by just a few points France won back-to-back Six Nations titles after beating England 48-46 on a last-second penalty-kick by Thomas Ramos in a thriller for the ages on Saturday. England scored their seventh try in the 77th minute and converted for 46-45. If the score held for a few more minutes, Ireland would have been crowned the champion. But France pressed yet again with 14 men, lost possession, regained it, and earned two simultaneous penalties after the fulltime siren. Captain Antoine Dupont debated with referee Nika Amashukeli where the penalty spots were. Ramos, who did not miss a goal-kick all night, finally lined up his seventh
Home runs are greeted with a celebratory shot of espresso and the donning of an Armani jacket. Victories are marked with bottles of red wine while the soaring voice of opera singer Andrea Bocelli echoes through the locker room. Welcome to baseball, Italian-style. Written off as 80-1 underdogs before the World Baseball Classic started, Italy’s fairytale tournament has carried them all the way to today’s (Taipei time) semi-finals in Miami against Venezuela. On Saturday, Italy — who scored a stunning upset of a star-studded US lineup during the pool phase — kept their unbeaten campaign alive with a nail-biting 8-6
Kimi Antonelli became Formula 1’s second-youngest race winner with a composed drive to victory for Mercedes in an eventful Chinese Grand Prix yesterday. The 19-year-old Italian was the youngest pole position starter and briefly lost the lead to Lewis Hamilton of Ferrari at the start, but retook it soon after and was in control after that. “We did it! We did it!” Antonelli shouted to his team on the radio amid laughs and whoops. It was another 1-2 finish for Mercedes to start the season as Antonelli’s teammate George Russell came through a battle with both Ferraris to finish second. Lewis Hamilton was
RSS