Lucknow, Oct 13 (IANS): South Africa skipper Temba Bavuma credited his opening partner Quinton de Kock’s 109 off 106 balls for taking them to a total above 300 on a tricky surface at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium, which was enough to give the Proteas their second win of the competition.
On Thursday, de Kock become the second South African player after AB de Villiers to score successive centuries in Men’s ODI World Cups. The left-handed wicketkeeper-batter now has the second-most number of ODI hundreds as an opener for South Africa with 19 centuries, leading the way for South Africa to beat Australia by 134 runs.
"I do think the 311 was probably a couple over par. I think 290-300 was the par score. I guess I'm glad we lost the toss because we would have also had a lot to chase. I think things worked out in our favour.”
“I found it quite tricky myself with the bat. I was scratchy throughout my innings. I think Quinton going out and ending up with this with a score like that, I think he needs to be credited a lot," said Bavuma after the match ended to the broadcasters.
With the ball, Marco Jansen and Lungi Ngidi picked up a wicket each before Kagiso Rabada ran through Australia's middle order by taking out Steven Smith, Josh Inglis and Marcus Stoinis, followed by spinners Keshav Maharaj and Tabraiz Shamsi joining wicket-takers list to bowl out Australia for 177.
Bavuma called the win over Australia as a near-perfect game for South Africa, as the Proteas next face the Netherlands in Dharamshala on October 17. "I think I'd be really greedy if I said there'll be areas that we can improve. I think there was a close-to-perfect game for us. The goal is maybe with the bat, we could have finished a little bit stronger, but I think they really bowled well throughout the whole innings."
"At no point did the run rate get out of control for them...I think looking at all the different phases, the powerplay in the middle, as well as the death - wasn't really much of a death - but I think the guys really dominated that. I don't want to be too greedy. There's not much that I can see."
"I think you can have a look at the good work that we've done and achieved. So I'd take the confidence, take the learnings and experience from that…and to celebrate our individual performances, and then we'll come back tomorrow and we find ways to get better as a team," he concluded.