13 October,2023 08:06 AM IST | Lucknow | Santosh Suri
South Africa opener Quinton de Kock celebrates his century against Australia at Lucknow yesterday. Pic/Getty Images
South Africa are going from strength to strength, while Australia are playing like novices. It was a mismatched contest at the Ekana Stadium, as the Proteas collected their second win, while the hapless Aussies fell to their second defeat. To say that Australia were outplayed is to state the obvious. Their bowling was below par, their catching atrocious and their batting even worse than it was against India the other day.
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The Proteas were in full bloom here. After posting a World Cup record total in Delhi, South Africa made the highest score in an ODI game at the venue here as they ran up a formidable 311-7. Australia found the challenging target beyond them once they lost their top six wickets for a mere 70 runs to some impressive South African bowling. In the end, all that the other batters could do was reduce the margin of defeat, which was still by a substantial 134 runs.
Just like in the Delhi game, where the Sri Lankan captain had invited the Proteas to bat first on the placid Kotla pitch, the Aussie skipper Pat Cummins also committed the same mistake. For the second game running, South African batters did not let go of the largesse and took the Australian bowlers to the cleaners. Of course, the total was much smaller than the record 428 they posted at the Kotla, but once they got past the 300-run mark, it was always going to be an uphill task for the struggling Aussie batters.
It was again Quinton de Kock who set the tone for the South African innings by getting back-to-back centuries. Following his exact 100 in Delhi, De Kock played a fluent innings to collect 109 off 106 balls and set the stage for other batters to toy with the listless Aussie bowling. They also benefitted from four dropped catches. It was a game that Australia would like to forget in a hurry and make a fresh start as they still have to play seven more games in the tournament, which they have won five times.
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Brief scores
South Africa 311-7 in 50 overs (Q de Kock 109, A Markram 56, T Bavuma 35; G Maxwell 2-34, M Starc 2-53) beat Australia 177 all out in 40.5 overs (M Labuschagne 46, M Starc 27; K Rabada 3-33, K Maharaj 2-30, T Shamsi 2-38, M Jansen 2-54) by 134 runs
