By Neil Manthorp.
A magnificent, tournament-high 174 from Quinton de Kock, his third century in five games, and a rapid 90 from Heinrich Klaasen helped South Africa post a massive total of 382-5 before sealing an emphatic victory by 149-runs in their World Cup group match against Bangladesh at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Tuesday.
Marco Jansen (2-39) led the bowling charge with two early wickets as Bangladesh quickly slumped to 58-5 before being dismissed for just 233 in reply. Only Mahmadullah Riaz fought back with a brave but irrelevant century (111 from 111 balls) while opener Litton Das ground his way to a sedentary 22 from 44 balls.
Gerald Cotzee (3-62) was among the wickets once again and Lizaad Williams (2-56) impressed on his first appearance in the tournament as replacement for Lungi Ngidi who was resting a sore knee. Kagido Rabada (2-42) continues his encouraging climb back to peak form and remains very much the leader of attack despite not taking the new ball.
De Kock followed innings of 100 against Sri Lanka and 109 against Australia with an even more imperious display facing just 140 deliveries and collecting 15 fours and seven sixes in another silky combination of power and finesse before holing out on the third man boundary with five overs of the innings remaining.
Aiden Markram (60 from 69 balls) batted with sensible caution having arrived at the crease in the eighth over at 36-2 and played the anchor role in a third wicket stand of 131 which paved the way for another lavish acceleration in the final 10 overs which accrued an eye-watering 144 runs.
Klaasen was again in dominant form following his century against England at the same venue three days earlier pulling and driving eight sixes during another thumping innings of 90 from just 49 balls which also contained two fours. He was just two blows away from a second century and looked disproportionately disappointed after upper-cutting a slow bouncer to Mahmadullah on the cover boundary.
De Kock, too, dominated the spinners with three straight-driven sixes in his first 50 and an outrageous, reverse-swept maximum against Mahadullah’s off spin before hooking and pulling three more against the seamers in the final third of his innings.
David Miller joined the party late but had as much fun as anybody else with a marauding 34 from just 15 balls, four of which were dismissively despatched into the stands along with a pulled four.
Earlier Reeza Hendricks (12) was bowled by left arm seamer Shoriful Islam and Rassie van der Dussen (1) was trapped lbw by offspinner Mehidy Hasan. Markram’s soothing innings ended with a miscued drive to long off against Bangladesh captain, Shakib al Hasan (9-0-69-1) who was later thumped for two sixes by Klaasen in his final over.
South Africa’s fourth win from five games sees them climb above New Zealand into second place on net run-rate on the tournament log, two points behind India who have won all five matches so far.
Bangladesh remain in seventh place with just one victory from five games and are effectively out of contention for a semifinal place.
South Africa’s regular captain, Temba Bavuma, had not fully recovered from the stomach bug which kept him out of the match against England leaving Markram to continue as stand-in skipper.
South Africa: Quinton de Kock (wkt), Reeza Hendricks, Rassie van der Dussen, Aiden Markram (captain), Heinrich Klaasen, David Miller, Marco Jansen, Gerald Coetzee, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Lizaad Williams
Bangladesh: Tanzid Hasan, Litton Das, Najmul Hossain Shanto, Shakib Al Hasan (captain), Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Mushfiqur Rahim (wkt), Mahmudullah, Nasum Ahmed, Mustafizur Rahman, Shoriful Islam, Hasan Mahmud.