AB de Villiers’ career-best one-day score flew all around Paarl’s picturesque ground on Wednesday‚ and set South Africa up for a series win over Bangladesh.
De Villiers hammered 176 off 104 balls with 15 fours and seven sixes to power South Africa‚ who were put in to bat‚ to 353/6 in the second one-day international — the highest total in the 11 ODIs played at the ground.
South Africa resisted experimenting with their batting order against opponents they hammered by 10 wickets in the first match of the series in Kimberley on Sunday.
Instead‚ Hashim Amla and Quinton de Kock rattled up an opening stand of 90 inside 18 overs.
But three balls after Shakib Al Hasan ended the partnership by trapping De Kock in front for 46‚ he clean bowled Faf du Plessis for a duck.
Not that Bangladesh could make much of their twin strike as Amla and De Villiers added 136 for the third wicket. That stand ended when seamer Rubel Hossain had Amla caught behind for 85.
Almost regardless of what was happening around him‚ De Villiers was the engine of the innings with his array of ripping strokes.
Bangladesh had no answer to his attacking innovation‚ and there was more relief than celebration when he holed out to Rubel in the 48th over.
Rubel gave the sizeable contingent of Bangladeshi supporters at the ground something to cheer when he dismissed JP Duminy and Dwaine Pretorius with consecutive deliveries in the last over of the innings.
That earned Rubel figures of 4/62.
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