The Proteas won another one-day cricket match against Australia. This time they concluded a World Cup encounter with 134 runs in Lucknow.
Quinton de Kock scored his second century in a row when he smashed 109 runs from 106 deliveries.
His innings included 13 boundaries and he reached his milestone with a six off the bowling of Pat Cummins.
Although the Proteas lost steam towards the end of their innings – for example Mitchell Starc took two wickets in the last over – they were still able to score more than 300 runs in their allowed 50 overs.
Kagiso Rabada then came up with a couple of brilliant deliveries to get rid of Steven Smtih and Josh Inglis, while Lungi Ngidi took the important wicket of David Warner.
Keshav Maharaj also put the Aussies under pressure with his accurate bowling: He conceded only 30 runs in his ten overs and he picked up two wickets.
“It was a very good victory; the men analyzed the conditions well and adapted to them. I think we scored more than enough runs – I know from experience that it gets tougher to bat at night in Lucknow,” De Kock said after receiving his player of the match award.
However, he warned that there is still a lot of water to go in the sea before the Proteas can think about play-offs.
“We are proud of our performance, but we have only played two games and anything can still happen. It is important to concentrate on one game at a time.”
South Africa play against the Netherlands on Tuesday.
- Summary of the scorecard:
South Africa 311/7 in 50 overs: Quinton de Kock 109, Aiden Markram 56 and Glenn Maxwell 2/34.
Australia 177/10 in 40.5 overs: Marnus Labuschagne 46, Kagiso Rabada 3/33 and Keshav Maharaj 2/30.
