Quinton de Kock era off to a winning start as SA thrash England in first ODI
The Quinton de Kock era got off to a winning start as SA recorded a morale-boosting seven wickets thrashing of England in the first of three ODIs at Newlands on Tuesday.
The new Proteas skipper won the toss and inserted England to bat on what was a sluggish track and the hosts restricted the visitors to 258/8 in 50 overs with spinner Tabraiz Shamsi claiming 3/38.
With the bat‚ SA registered a record run chase at this ground with 14 balls remaining to take a 1-0 lead in a series that still has two matches in Durban and Johannesburg on Friday and Sunday remaining respectively.
De Kock‚ who showed no signs of being overburdened by the role of leading the side‚ keeping wicket and opening the batting‚ sparkled with a breathtaking knock of 107 off 113.
He was part of the match-winning second wicket partnership of 173 with equally impressive Temba Bavuma‚ who fell two runs shy of what could have been his second ODI century‚ as they rebuilt the innings following the early loss of Reeza Hendricks.
De Kock’s second wicket partnership with Bavuma is the highest for SA against England and surpassed the 112 record that was held by Hashim Amla and Faf du Plessis at Leeds in 2017.
For his 15th ODI century‚ De Kock scored 11 boundaries and one maximum to go past the 5,000 runs mark and he also became the second fastest South African to reach this landmark after Amla. The other batting star for the Proteas was Bavuma who agonisingly missed out on his second ODI century when he was trapped in front by Chris Jordan in his third match of this format.
The only blemishes for SA were their failure to bowl out England‚ who at one stage were struggling on 131/6 with their dangerous batsmen back at the pavilion‚ as well as the manner in which Bavuma went out.
When De Kock and Bavuma were removed by Joe Root and Jordan‚ SA were on their way to victory and Rassie van der Dussen (38) and Jon-Jon Smuts (7) finished the job after 47.4 overs. Before De Kock and Bavuma stole the show‚ Shamsi rocked the English middle order with the vital wickets of Eoin Morgan‚ Tom Banton‚ and Sam Curran.
Other contributors were Beuran Hendricks‚ Andile Phehlukwayo and debutants Smuts and Lutho Sipamla‚ who all returned with one wicket apiece while Lungi Ngidi ended his shift empty-handed.
England failed to get going with the bat, with Joe Denly their most notable scorer with 87 runs, followed by Chris Woakes (40) and opener Jason Roy (32).
Their notable partnerships were 91 between Denly and Woakes and 51 between Johnny Bairstow and Roy.