South Africa pipped England by 229 runs in the Cricket World Cup, leaving the struggling defending champions facing an early exit from the tournament after their recent humiliation.
England suffered their third defeat in four games on Saturday, having previously lost to New Zealand and, in a big surprise, Afghanistan.
The Proteas bounced back from their own shock defeat to the Netherlands on Tuesday to post a score of 399-7 after being sent to bat in sweltering conditions in Mumbai. Heinrich Klaasen (109) hit a century off 61 balls and Marco Jansen made an unbeaten 75 off 42 balls.
England plummeted to 38-4 in their reply after 8.1 overs and were eventually dismissed for 170 in just 22 overs.
Klaasen and Jansen played with England’s pace and spin to reach 151, giving the Proteas their second-highest total of the tournament. South Africa also posted a score of 428-5 – their highest – against Sri Lanka in New Delhi.
After conceding the highest total in ODIs, England were dismissed with 28 overs to spare, marking their highest defeat by runs in ODIs.
Klaasen scored his first hundred in a World Cup and fourth overall, and it was the second fastest hundred in the tournament, after his compatriot Aiden Markram’s 100 from 48 balls against Sri Lanka. In total he hit twelve fours and four sixes.
The big win consolidates South Africa’s third place with six points. England fell to ninth in the table and are two points level with bottom-placed Afghanistan.
South Africa lost Quinton de Kock for four runs. Reeza Hendricks, who came on as a substitute for captain Temba Bavuma, who was out due to illness, scored 85 off 75 balls. He hit nine fours and three sixes.
Hendricks reached 50 from 48 balls and managed 121 runs from 116 deliveries with Rassie van der Dussen, who scored 60 from 61.
Adil Rashid made up the deficit for England. Van der Dussen was caught at mid-wicket and then Hendricks chopped a googly onto his stumps. It brought substitute captain Markram and Klaasen into the goal area.
They added 69 runs for the fourth wicket before South Africa lost touch again. Markram was brought back in the 35th minute by Reece Topley, who came to bowl after receiving treatment on his injured left hand. The left-arm pacer had David Miller caught for five two overs later.
At 243-5, it seemed as if South Africa would have to settle for a below-par result on a good batting surface. However, Klaasen had other plans.
Klaasen struggled with heavy sweating in high humidity and cramps and could barely walk. He instead made up for this with fours and sixes as South Africa passed the 300 mark in the 44th over.
Just four overs later, South Africa surpassed 350. Klaasen, who scored 50 off 40 balls, raced to triple figures in just the next 21 balls. At the other end, Jansen scored 50 of 35 points.
Klaasen and Jansen helped South Africa to 143 runs in the last 10 overs with an incredible display of batting power, hitting 15 fours and 10 sixes during their stand.
“This hundred is on par with my best performance of all time,” said Klaasen, player of the game, at the award ceremony.
“The conditions were brutal. It’s real heat and it robs you of energy.”
Chasing a mammoth 400 score, the English innings never got going. Three of their top four batters didn’t even reach double figures.
Jonny Bairstow took 10 holes ahead of Lungi Ngidi (2-26), while Dawid Malan trailed Jansen.
Jansen also had a productive day with the ball – he took 2-35 in five overs and also sent back Joe Root for two runs. Root hit the ball straight off his pads and into the leg groove for a simple practice catch.
The game appeared to be over when the inspiring, fit-again Ben Stokes (5) offered a simple return catch to Kagiso Rabada, who happily accepted it.
The procession of wickets continued. Gerald Coetzee sent back skipper Jos Buttler (15) and Harry Brook (17) in the 12th over. Buttler fell behind while Brook was out lbw as England were down at 68-6.
Coetzee finished the game with 3-35. Mark Wood was the top scorer of the innings with 43 not outs in 17 balls.
The defeat left England with a mountain to climb to reach the semi-finals and captain Jos Buttler admitted: “It leaves us no room for error.
“From now on we probably need to win every other game and that’s the situation we find ourselves in.”
Sri Lanka gets their first win
Sri Lanka finally picked up their first win by defeating the Netherlands by five wickets in Lucknow, India.
The Dutch posted a competitive total of 262 thanks to maiden ODI half-centuries from Sybrand Engelbrecht (70) and Logan van Beek (59).
Offspinner Aryan Dutt (3-44) put Sri Lanka in trouble with the new ball in the batting powerplay before Sadeera Samarawickrama posted an unbeaten 107-ball total of 91 to take Sri Lanka to 263-5 for after defeats to South Africa, Pakistan and Australia brought his first points.
Sri Lanka have two points from four games. The eighth-placed Netherlands also has two points.
Source : www.aljazeera.com