MUMBAI, (Reuters) – Quinton de Kock led South Africa’s batting carnage with an incendiary 174 as they crushed Bangladesh by 149 runs to stay on course for a place in the semi-finals of the 50-overs World Cup yesterday.
De Kock smashed the ongoing tournament’s highest individual score and South Africa’s middle order hectored a listless Bangladesh attack to amass 382-5 after electing to bat at the Wankhede Stadium.
Their fiery pace attack reduced Bangladesh to 58-5 and eventually bundled them out for 233 in 46.4 overs to register their fourth win in five matches.
For Bangladesh, Mahmudullah offered resistance with a run-a-ball 111 but it was not enough to avert a heavy defeat.
“Sometimes you try and rush it and things don’t go your way, but I still think it was a great day for us,” stand-in skipper Aiden Markram said after South Africa moved to second place, behind India, in the points table.
“Form is something you can’t take for granted, and we certainly won’t do that as players and keep striving to put in big performances in each game.”
De Kock had announced he would quit one-day internationals after the World Cup in India and the opener appeared determined to make his farewell a memorable one.
South Africa lost Reeza Hendricks and Rassie van der Dussen in successive overs after Markram, leading the side in the absence of the unwell Temba Bavuma, won the toss and elected to bat.
De Kock combined with Markram (60) in a 131-run stand to steady the innings before he and Heinrich Klaasen tore apart the Bangladesh attack plundering 142 runs from 87 balls.
Player-of-the-match De Kock duly brought up his third hundred in five matches and went on to topple India’s Virat Kohli as the tournament’s leading scorer.
A double hundred looked on the cards too before de Kock before holed out after a 140-ball blitz that included seven sixes and 15 fours.
His exit brought no relief for Bangladesh though as Klaasen and David Miller, who made 34 not out off 15 balls, continued the mayhem hitting a combined 12 sixes between them.
Klaasen belted 90 off 49 balls and South Africa plundered 144 runs from the last 10 overs to leave Bangladesh with a mountain to climb when they returned.
After six quiet overs, Marco Jansen dented the Bangladesh top order removing Tanzid Hasan and Najmul Hossain Shanto with successive deliveries.
The match was effectively over for Bangladesh when they slumped to 42-2 inside 12 overs with skipper Shakib Al Hasan and veteran Mushfiqur Rahim also back in the pavilion.
South Africa were not equally clinical against the Bangladesh tail though.
Mahmudullah hit four sixes and 11 fours in his gritty knock, which merely delayed Bangladesh’s fourth defeat in five matches.
“I thought Quinton de Kock batted really well and the way Heinrich Klaasen finished it off, we didn’t have any answers to it,” Shakib said afterwards.
“We conceded 144 from last 10 overs, which is probably the most expensive 10 overs we’ve bowled in the last 10-15 years.”
