Cricket Highlights, 13 Oct: ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 (Match 10) – Australia vs South Africa: South Africa soared up to the top spot defeating the Aussies.

Australia vs South Africa (Match 10) – Highlights

This year’s ODI World Cup has been remarkable for South Africa so far. After defeating Sri Lanka by a huge margin in the first match, they also beat the mighty Australia by a colossal margin on Thursday (October 12) in the second match. Proteas triumphed by 134 runs against the Aussies. With this victory, Temba Bavuma’s team has come to the top of the points table.

After 2 matches, 4 points are on the cards for South Africa. New Zealand, India, and Pakistan who are second, third, and fourth consecutively in the table also have 4 points. England is in fifth and Bangladesh is in the sixth spot with 2 points. Australia is second from the bottom of the table. Afghanistan is at the bottom.

The Proteas scored 311 runs batting first at the Shri Atal Bihari Cricket Stadium. In response, Kagiso Rabada and Marco Jansen’s fiery bowling ended Australia’s innings at 177 runs. It was Pat Cummins’ side’s second straight defeat straight after losing to hosts India in the previous match.

Although the Protea batters scored runs at a rate of more than 6, the Aussies could not stand on the wicket properly on the same pitch. Mitchell Marsh and David Warner both got out with strikes below fifty. Marsh added 7 and Warner put up 13 runs on the board. Jansen took Marsh’s wicket, and Lungi Ngidi sent off Warner.

Steven Smith was the victim of Rabada for 19 in the team’s 50 runs. Marnus Labuschagne then continued to fight. Meanwhile, Josh Inglis (5), Glenn Maxwell (3), and Marcus Stoinis (5) could not touch the double-digit score. However, there are some controversies over the dismissals of Smith and Stoinis. At the end, Mitchell Starc accompanied Labuschagne. This Aussie pacer got out after scoring 27 runs off 51 balls.

After a while, Labuschagne also returned to the pavilion after scoring 46 off 74 balls. Cummins scored 22 and Adam Zampa made 11 runs in the last over. But it could not take Australia to the brink of victory. Kagiso Rabada scalped the maximum number of three wickets for the Proteas. Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, and Tabraiz Shamsi took 2 wickets each. Lungi Ngidi also picked up a wicket.

Earlier, the Aussie captain Cummins won the toss and sent South Africa to bat first. The Proteas quickly proved that the decision to choose fielding was wrong for their opponents. They accumulated 100 runs on the scorecard before 20 overs.

Protea opener Quinton de Kock made Australia suffer going down to bat. After Sri Lanka, this wicketkeeper-batsman also got the taste of a century against the Aussies. In 19.4 overs, skipper Bavuma tried to take on Maxwell and was caught by Warner, by which the opening pair was broken. Bavuma scored 35 runs off 55 balls with 2 fours.

De Kock added another 50 runs with Rassie van der Dussen who came to the wicket at one down. Dussen became the victim of a Zampa for the team’s 158 runs. Before that, he became the owner of the second-fastest 2000 runs. He completed 2000 runs batting in 45 innings. This batsman has taken a place next to Babar Azam, Kevin Pietersen, and Zaheer Abbas.

Aiden Markram, who came to the wicket after Dussen’s departure, also joined the party. They added 39 runs from 38 balls in this pair. De Kock played an innings of 109 runs off 106 balls, but the South African innings did not lose momentum even though Maxwell seized his wicket. He played his innings with 8 fours and 5 sixes.

Heinrich Klaasen and Markram added 66 runs for the fifth wicket partnership. However, if these two depart with a gap of just four runs; the Proteas were in danger with that. Cummins brought back Markram who scored 56 off 44 balls with 7 fours and 1 six. And Josh Hazlewood hunted Klaasen, who scored 29 runs off 27 balls.

After that, South Africa got a challenging collection of 311 runs for 7 wickets based on the innings of David Miller (17) and Jansen (26). Glenn Maxwell was the most successful bowler for Australia. He snapped up 2 wickets with only 34 runs in 10 overs. Mitchell Starc also took 2 wickets conceding 53 runs in 9 overs. Besides, Pat Cummins, Adam Zampa, and Josh Hazlewood got 1 wicket each.

Australia vs South Africa Scoreboard

South Africa – 311/7 (50.0)

Australia – 177/10 (40.5)

Result – South Africa won by 134 runs

Player of the match – Quinton de Kock

Quinton de Kock

Australia vs South Africa Playing XIs