South Africa crush Australia to go atop of World Cup standings

Kagiso Rabada was at the centre of South Africa's bowling excellence 

Quinton de Kock kicked off the 2023 World Cup with back-to-back tons​

• Quinton de Kock leads South Africa to 311-7  and rout of Australia by 134 runs

LUCKNOW: South Africa continued their excellent form in the ongoing Cricket World Cup to defeat Australia by a comprehensive margin of 134 runs to record their second successive win in as many matches and go top of the standings on a better net run rate ahead of New Zealand at Lucknow Thursday.

Quinton de Kock scored back to back centuries to guide South Africa to a respectable 311-7 after being invited to bat first and their fast bowlers reduced Australia to 70-6 before the spinners came on to finish the job off by dismissing them for 177 in the 41st over.

The margin of defeat for Australia could have been much greater had it not been for a 69-run stand between Marnus Labuschagne (46) and Mitchell Starc (27), but overall it was a dreadful display of batting.

Credit to the South African bowlers with the ball zipping around under lights as Marco Jansen and Lungi Ngidi picked up a wicket each in the powerplay before Kagiso Rabada ran through the middle order picking up the wickets of Steve Smith, Josh Inglis and Marcus Stoinis to finish with 3/33. The dismissals of Smith who was given out lbw and Stoinis caught behind proved controversial. Stoinis was given out by the third umpire who reckoned the bottom hand was touching the top hand. Smith looked surprised when replays showed the ball hitting top of leg stump when to the naked eye it seemed the ball was going down leg side.

South Africa got off to a good start with Temba Bavuma and de Kock playing sensibly with the ball swinging and seaming around to post a century stand for the first wicket. De Kock however was the star of the show as he notched up yet another century 109 off 106 balls (8 fours, 5 sixes). It followed his 100 scored in South Africa’s opening fixture against Sri Lanka. Rassie van der Dussen and Aidan Markram kept the runs flowing with Markram completing a 44-ball half-century.   

South Africa looked on course to a total well in excess of 300 but Australia managed to pull things back by dismissing Markram and Klaasen within six balls of each other. Australia could have dismissed South Africa for under 300 but for an uncharacteristically sloppy display of catching on the field that allowed them to eventually post a challenging total on a pitch that had swing and seam movement for the new ball bowlers and grip and turn for the spinners. – (ST)

Scores: South Africa 311-7 (50) (Quinton de Kock 109, Temba Bavuma 35, Rassie van der Dussen 26, Aiden Markram 56, Heinrich Klaasen 29, Marco Jansen 26, Mitchell Starc 2/53, Glenn Maxwell 2/34)

Australia 177 (40.5) (Marnus Labuschagne 46, Mitchell Starc 27, Pat Cummins 22, Marco Jansen 2/54, Kagiso Rabada 3/33, Keshav Maharaj 2/30, Tabraiz Shamsi 2/38)