South Africa beat Australia to make it two in two!

Two in two for both the teams in Lucknow! If it was elation for South Africa, it was despair for their opponents Australia! South Africa won two in two games, beating Sri Lanka and Australia, while Australia lost both their first two games, to India and South Africa respectively!

Image Credits: ESPN Cricinfo

South Africa were led by the heroics of opener Quinton de Kock who scored his second consecutive century in the World Cup 2023 edition! Quinton scored 109 runs in this game at the back of a brilliant 100 in their first game against Sri Lanka. Aiden Markram too scored his half-century giving them a great boost in the middle overs.

Brisk knocks from Heinrich Klassen (29 off 27) and Marco Jansen (26 off 22) towards the end where the pitch became slow helped them get to 311/7 in 50 overs. Glenn Maxwell was the top performer of the Australia unit with figures of 2/34 in 10 overs.

Australia were clueless during the run chase as they lost their first 3 wickets with just 50 runs on the board. Another collapse meant that they were reeling at 70/6 in the 18th over. Marnus Labuschagne (46 off 74), Mitchell Starc (27 off 51), and Pat Cummins (22 off 21) made notable contributions as Aussies were bowled out for 177 runs in the 41st over!

Each of the five South African bowlers used in this match picked up at least a wicket each with Kagiso Rabada leading the charts with figures of 3/33 from 8 overs. Surprisingly, Lungi Ngidi was Proteas' most economical bowler with 1/18 from his 8 overs!

Quinton de Kock bagged the Player of the Match award for his superb knock with the bat setting up a huge total on the board. Meanwhile, Australia is at the 9th position having lost both their first two games and South Africa is at the top of the points table.

Brief Scores: South Africa - 311/7 in 50 overs (Quinton de Kock - 109, Aiden Markram - 56, Glenn Maxwell - 2/34, Mitchell Starc - 2/53) defeated Australia - 177 all out in 40.5 overs (Marnus Labuschagne - 46, Mitchell Starc - 27, Kagiso Rabada - 3/33, Keshav Maharaj - 2/30) by a margin of 134 runs