Mumbai: Opener Quinton de Kock struck his third century in five matches, a 140-ball 174, while Heinrich Klassen nearly got his second ton in a row before getting out for 90 as South Africa posted a massive 382/5 in 50 overs in Match 23 of ICC Men’s ODI World Cup 2023 at the Wankhede Stadium here Tuesday.
Electing to bat first, South Africa had slumped to 30/2 in the Power-play before De Kock, with help from skipper Aiden Markram (60) and Klassen (90 off 49 balls), not only guided them to safety but put them in a great position to secure their fourth win in the tournament.
De Kock, who started his World Cup campaign with a 100 in the opener against Sri Lanka October 7 and followed it up with a 109 against Australia a few days later, capitalised on the good batting strip in hot and humid conditions, slamming 15 boundaries and seven maximums during an innings of pure class.
He was cautious when he needed to be as South Africa lost two early wickets, built his innings with patience as he blazed to his fifty and hundred and then used brute force to hammer the Bangladeshi bowlers to all corners of the ground as he nearly overtook his highest-ever ODI score of 178.
In the process, Quinton de Kock became the highest-run scorer in the World Cup 2023, taking his total to 407, becoming the first batter to score 400 and overtaking Virat Kohli at 354 from five matches.
De Kock shared two big partnerships — 131 for the third wicket with Aiden Markram (60) and 142 for the fourth wicket Heinrich Klassen as he rescued South Africa from a wobbly 30/2 after losing Rezza Hendrick (12) and Rassie van der Dussen (1) inside the Power-play.
The 30-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman from Johannesburg raced to his fifty in 47 balls, took 54 deliveries for his next fifty and then blazed his third fifty off just 28 balls. Overall his splendid knock of 174 came off 140 deliveries.
De Kock blasted 22 runs off the 43rd over bowled by Shakib Al Hasan, leaving the Bangladesh skipper hoping he should have taken another off-day Tuesday after missing the last match against India due to a left quad injury.
After Shakib bowled a wide followed by a dot ball, QDK went berserk, hammering 6 4 6 4 and a single in the next five deliveries, bringing up his 150 in the process. He continued the carnage in the next over, hitting Shoriful Islam for successive boundaries — De Kock hammering 29 runs off seven legal deliveries. Klassen rubbed salt into the wounds by blasting the fourth delivery of the match.
With the crowd chanting his name whenever he reached a milestone, de Kock danced down the track to the spinners, stayed back to cut, pulled the pacers when they bowled short or tried the slow stuff and used pure power to muscle the ball to the boundary. A superb reverse sweep six off Mahmudullah in the 22nd over the pick of his shots.
Just when it looked like he would play through the innings, de Kock was out, muzzling the ball down the throat of Nasum Ahmed at deep backward point, walking off to an ovation from the sparse crowd.
Markram played the able foil to QDK, building the innings with caution as he reached his half-century off 57 balls before his inside-out drive to long-off on the bowling of Shakib was caught by Litton Das.
But Bangladesh’s troubles were not over yet as Klaasen, who had matched QDK shot for shot during their century partnership, took over the mantle as he blasted some superb sixes to race to 90 off 49 balls. Klaasen struck two fours and eight sixes in another blazing knock following his 109 off 67 balls against England in the previous match.
Towards the end of the innings, David Miller belted an unbeaten 34 off 15 balls to further boost the South Africa innings.
All the Bangladeshi bowlers received punishment from the South African batters as they failed to capitalise on some gilt-edged chances, like a direct-hit run-out chance off de Kock, to halt South Africa’s march.
Brief scores:
South Africa 382/5 in 50 overs (Quinton de Kock 174, Aiden Markram 60, Heinrich Klaasen 90; Hasan Mahmud 2-67) against Bangladesh.
IANS