On Tuesday, October 24, in Mumbai, South Africa easily defeated Bangladesh by 149 runs, demonstrating once more the value of their formidable batting arsenal. Quinton de Kock’s third World Cup century, Heinrich Klaasen’s excellent fifties, and stand-in captain Aiden Markram’s fifty runs were among the highlights of South Africa’s impressive batting exhibition total. Bangladesh never really got going in the chase, and the game was all but gone before it was called, much like the South Africa vs. England encounter.
Under the lights at the Wankhede, with Bangladesh at 42/4 in the twelfth over, the Proteas pacers effectively ended the match at halftime as they again scared the opposition. Bangladesh suffered one of their poorest World Cup matches, even though senior player Mahmudullah’s century significantly reduced the margin of defeat.
Bangladesh’s top order, which has lately shown symptoms of fragility against the new ball, was unable to keep up with South Africa’s pace unit. Because of the enormity of the target and the frequent falling of wickets, Bangladesh was barely reaching it. Instead, the opening required a big PowerPlay.
The Wankhede pitch had quickened under the lights, just as it had against England, and it was clear that South Africa’s pacers were relishing the conditions. Even seasoned players Shakib Al Hasan and Mushfiqur Rahim could not halt the run as the wickets began to fall like ninepins. Not that it did much good for Bangladesh, but Mahmudullah did a great job of controlling the tail to cut South Africa’s lead when they reached 81/6.
After that, it was just a matter of how many runs they would win. Once he got rolling, the middle order batter could consistently hit the ball all over the field, even though it took him some time. When Lizaad Williams skied off against, his record was well above fifty.
Mahmudullah added another World Cup century to his record with the tail providing a lot of assistance. In yet another boring match, it was Bangladesh’s lone bright spot. Reeza Hendricks and Rassie van der Dussen had given them early wickets to set them up for a wonderful afternoon, but South Africa’s batting order was so good that they only needed one partnership to get back into the swing of things.
That was from de Kock, who spearheaded the team’s effort on another batting-friendly Wankhede track by compiling the second-highest World Cup score by a South African batsman. His 131-run alliance with Markram laid the groundwork for the strong finishers to contribute.
Markram was initially a little grouchy, but he quickly warmed up and smashed his signature shots into the off-side. De Kock’s aggression was brilliantly neutralised by his flowing strokework, which set up Klaasen to take advantage of Markram’s substitution.
Anyone who believed that Klaasen’s wish had been fulfilled after his thrilling triumph over England at the same place would be seriously mistaken. The player is still one of the league’s most effective finishers at age 32. It was regrettable that he did not qualify for successive World Cup tons because all of Bangladesh’s bowlers were spared.
Thanks to their back end hammering, South Africa equaled the devastation they caused to England in their previous meeting with 144 runs in the final 10 overs. After de Kock and Klaasen’s laborious overs, David Miller was helpful in raising the score a little bit above Bangladesh’s reach. It would have taken a miracle for Shakib’s troops to try to make this a contest, but after their first order failure, all they could do was delay the inevitable.
Brief scores:
South Africa 382/5 in 50 overs (Quinton de Kock 174, Heinrich Klaasen 90, Aiden Markram 60; Hasan Mahmud 2-67) beat Bangladesh 233 in 46.4 overs (Mahmudullah 111; Gerald Coetzee 3-62, Marco Jansen 2-39, Kagiso Rabada 2-42) by 149 runs