North Sound (Antigua), June 19 (IANS): Opener Quinton de Kock hammered a 40-ball 74 and skipper Aiden Markram scored 46 off 32 balls to help South Africa reach a mighty total of 194/4 as they batted first against the USA in the opening Super Eight stage match in ICC Men's T20 World Cup here on Wednesday.

The USA, who were the team of the preliminary round after storming into the Super 8 stage on debut by stunning Pakistan, put the mighty proteas in to bat first on winning the toss and the South Africans came up with a fine innings to post a challenging total. The co-hosts had early success when Saurabh Netravalkar had Reeza Hendricks hitting it straight into the hands of Corey Anderson at mid-off.

So, it was left to De Kock to push on with the assistance of Aiden Markram, hitting a brilliant 74 off 40 balls -- including seven fours and five sixes. He reached his half-century off 27 balls. He was eventually removed by a smartly delivered full toss from Harmeet Singh, caught by Shayan Jahangir. he and Markram raised 110 runs for the second wicket to take South Africa past the 110-run mark.

And Harmeet struck again with the next ball, catching new batter David Miller off his own bowling, and making the scoreline 126/3 with a little more than seven overs remaining.

Markram was next to fall after a solid 46 off 32 balls, caught by a flying Ali Khan off Netravalkar. Then Tristan Stubbs and Heinrich Klaasen formed an effective partnership for the last five overs, putting on a valuable 53 between them.

Netravalkar claimed 2-21 while Harmeet 2-24 to prevent the South Africans from going berserk in the middle.

Brief scores:

South Africa 194/4 in 20 overs (Quinton de Kock 74, Aiden Markram 46, Heinrich Klaasen 36 not out; Saurabh Netravalkar 2-21, Harmeet Singh 2-24) against the USA.