A fiery century by Heinrich Klaasen and then an all-out attack by pacers helped South Africa secure a 229-run win over defending champions England in their ICC Cricket World Cup match at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium here on Saturday. “Fantastic all-round performance. I could not have asked for a bigger effort, and the skills to top it off were fantastic to see. Slightly surprised by England’s decision at the toss. We know they like chasing, we would have batted first. Happy it worked out the way it did. Was good that our big quicks were not cooking in the heat. (On Hendricks) Really great knock, especially without warm-up. He has been around a long time, and that experience helps. He has really worked on his game each and every day and has reaped those rewards,” said Markram in a post-match presentation.
“(On Klaasen) Him at 5 and (David) Miller at 6 is a destructive pair at the back end. He has come a long way. We’ve played together for a while, great to see him showcase his abilities that we knew he always had, on a big stage. (On Jansen) He is having a great competition. He takes a lot of pride in his batting and prepares to deal with the worst-case scenario. Lot of ability with the bat, his confidence will rise. Great stand with Klaasy. Incredibly pleased for him. Great way to bounce back after the Netherlands loss, it hurt us,” he added.
Coming to the match, England elected to field first. Half-centuries from Reeza Hendricks (85 in 75 balls, with nine fours and three sixes) and Rassie van der Dussen (60 in 61 balls, with eight fours) set a foundation for something big.
But it was the partnership between Heinrich Klaasen (109 in 67 balls, with 12 fours and four sixes) and Marco Jansen (75 in 42 balls, with three fours and six sixes) that really upped the run-rate, taking Proteas to 399/7 in their 50 overs.
Reece Topley (3/88) was the pick of the bowlers for England while Gus Atkinson and Adil Rashid took two wickets.
In the chase of 400, England was never a threat and was reduced to 100/8. But a partnership between Mark Wood (43 in 17 balls, with two fours and five sixes) and Gus Atkinson (35 in 21 balls, seven fours) offered some entertainment to fans, but England was bundled for 170 in 35 overs.
Gerald Coetzee (3/35) was the top bowler for SA. Lungi Ngidi (2/26) and Marco Jansen (2/35) took two wickets while Keshav Maharaj and Kagiso Rabada took one. Klaasen was the ‘Player of the Match’ for his match-winning knock.
