On Thursday in Lucknow, South Africa trounced Australia by 134 runs in an unusually one-sided World Cup match. A lot happened during this match, with Quinton de Kock scoring his second consecutive World Cup century to Kagiso Rabada taking three wickets. Here are the game’s top five moments.
South Africa’s opening stand
The Proteas opening duo of Quinton de Kock and Temba Bavuma withstood the storm by attacking the opposition, scoring 108 for the first wicket inside 20 overs, setting the stage of a massive score despite the new ball doing all the talking in the outset.
De Kock’s hundred
In Lucknow against Australia, Quinton de Kock, who was competing in his final World Cup, smashed 109 runs to achieve his second consecutive hundred. The left-handed opener scored his 19th ODI hundred on Thursday after earlier setting the record for an ODI innings against Sri Lanka.
Six drop catches
Australia’s World Cup match versus South Africa has been severely hampered by dropped catches. The Australian fielders dropped six catches throughout this game, the most ever by them in a World Cup match, costing them more than 300 runs in this tense contest.
Inglis wicket
Kagiso Rabada, the spearhead of the Proteas, was their standout performer, taking three wickets, including Josh Inglis off a peach of a delivery on five. The ball did enough movement after being pitched on the decent length area to veer off the pitch and strike the off and middle stump, leaving Inglis and the Australian camp in disbelief.
Stoinis, Smith dismissals spark controversy
Steve Smith and Marcus Stoinis’ firings would be the two that would garner the most attention for a very long time. Given that Smith hopped a little bit while trying to play a shot, the delivery on which he was dismissed appeared to miss the top of the stumps, let alone clip any wickets, but on Hawk-eye, it appeared clean.