Cricket
Klaasen Century carries Proteas to 399/7 against England─── KAYLA BARKER 16:22 Sat, 21 Oct 2023
The Proteas took the bat first this morning as they looked to up their intensity against England, the defending champions, in Mumbai in the ICC Cricket World Cup being played in India.
Following the disappointing defeat to the Netherlands in Dharamsala on Tuesday, the Proteas got off to a magnificent start today, batting 399/7, in what marks the highest score England has ever conceded.
For the English, the pressure is on, following disappointing defeats against New Zealand and Afghanistan. They will need to pull together 400 runs in their allotted overs to outscore the Proteas and seeing that their World Cup campaign hasn’t gotten off to a good start the challenge ahead may prove to be a nail-biter for the English.
Quinton de Kock took to the bat first but was unfortunately bowled out for 4 in the first over. Heinrich Klaasen carried the team scoring a magnificent 109 runs off 67 balls.
Reeza Hendricks, Rassie van der Dussen and Aiden Markram made a valuable contribution to South Africa’s innings respectively scoring 85, 60 and 42 runs against England.
Hendricks scored 85 from just 75 balls as he was called to the pitch setting the team up for success as thereafter van der Dussen and Markram brought their contributions to the table putting the Proteas on 191 runs before Klaasen brought his A-game.
Marco Jansen then placed the cherry on the cake with a personal best of 75 not out (3x4, 6x6) off 42 balls.
South Africa did well without their captain, Temba Bavuma, who unfortunately had to sit out due to an overnight illness. Aiden Markram has taken over the captaincy for the game and Hendricks was called in at the last minute and managed to make a massive contribution for the side despite the short notice.
England now takes to the bat and we are yet to see if the Three Lions can rise to the challenge and continue the fight to defend their title.
SOUTH AFRICA: Quinton de Kock (wkt), Reeza Hendricks, Rassie van der Dussen, Aiden Markram (captain), Heinrich Klaasen, David Miller, Marco Jansen, Gerald Coetzee, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi
ENGLAND:Jonny Bairstow, Dawid Malan, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Harry Brook, Jos Buttler (captain & wkt), David Willey, Adil Rashid, Gus Atkinson, Mark Wood, Reece Topley
