SYDNEY: Rilee Rossouw scored the first century of the Twenty20 World Cup and shared in a record-breaking stand with Quinton de Kock as South Africa crushed Bangladesh to kickstart their Twenty20 World Cup title charge in Sydney on Thursday.

Muscular lefthander Rossouw pummelled eight sixes and seven fours around the Sydney Cricket Ground for his 109, while de Kock pitched in with 63 runs as the Proteas dodged the rain to rack up an imposing tally of 205 for five.

The pair came together after Temba Bavuma fell in the first over and amassed 168 for the second wicket — the highest-ever T20 World Cup partnership — surpassing the 166 that Sri Lanka’s Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara made against the West Indies in 2010.

Paceman Anrich Nortje (4-10) took up where the batsmen let off with three top-order wickets, including that of dangerman Shakib Al Hasan for one, and Bangladesh were 66-5 after 10 overs and all out for 101 after 16.3.

“To score a hundred in a winning cause is fantastic,” said Rossouw. “Very chuffed with my performance today but more important is we got the two points.

“Sometimes things go your way. And this year has been like an unbelievable rollercoaster ride for me. Never thought about it [a century] in a million years.

“Today where I thought we did really well was we took on the spin ... and we really took charge and wanted to control that area and we did well.”

Having been robbed of a likely victory in their abandoned Super 12 opener by the rain in Hobart on Monday, South Africa again contended with the elements after winning the toss and choosing to bat in their second Group 2 contest.

After the early afternoon showers cleared, Bangladesh paceman Taskin Ahmed removed skipper Temba Bavuma in the first over but that only brought Rossouw and de Kock together to wreak their havoc.

Taskin’s second over went for 21 runs and the South African pair had put on 60 by the time the rain returned to force a break just before the end of the powerplay.

The innings stalled after De Kock holed out in the deep and Rossouw had a nervous moment when he was dropped on the boundary on 88 before reaching the century mark with a single off the 52nd delivery he faced.

The South Africans finished poorly after the early fireworks and Shakib finally winkled out Rossouw when the batter looped a delivery to Litton Das in the covers.

Bangladesh, roared on by the majority of the crowd, made a bright start to their innings but backing up their maiden win in the second round of the T20 World Cup over the Netherlands on Monday always looked a big ask.

Litton top-scored with 34 but South Africa spinner Tabraiz Shamsi took 3-20 to keep the wickets tumbling and Nortje returned to complete the rout by clean bowling Taskin.

“Credit goes to Rilee and Quinton de Kock, I think that partnership took the game away from us,” said Bangladesh captain Shakib. “Obviously when you lose by this margin, it is difficult. But we cannot sit back and say, okay, we are done. We have three more matches.”

South Africa v Bangladesh
Scoreboard

SOUTH AFRICA:

T. Bavuma c Nurul b Taskin 2

Q. de Kock c Soumya b Mosaddek 63

R. Rossouw c Das b Shakib 109

T. Stubbs c Das b Shakib 7

A. Markram c Sarkar b Hasan 10

D. Miller not out 2

W. Parnell not out 0

EXTRAS (LB-1, NB-4, W-2, PEN-5) 12

TOTAL (for five wkts, 20 overs) 205

DID NOT BAT: K. Maharaj, K. Rabada, A, Nortje, Tabraiz Shamsi.

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-2 (Bavuma), 2-170 (De Kock), 3-180 (Stubbs), 4-197 (Rossouw), 5-204 (Markram).

BOWLING: Taskin 3-0-46-1, Mehidy 3-0-32-0, Hasan 4-0-36-1, Mutafizur 4-0-25-0, Mosaddek 2-0-16-0, Shakib 3-0-33-2, Afif 1-0-11-1.

BANGLADESH:

Najmul Hossain b Nortje 9

Soumya Sarkar c De Kock b Nortje 15

Litton Das c Stubbs b Shamsi 34

Shakib Al Hasan lbw b Nortje 1

Afif Hossain c Parnell b Rabada 1

Mehidy Hasan c Markram b Shamsi 11

Mosaddek Hossain st de Kock b Maharaj 0

Nurul Hasan c Nortje b Shamsi 2

Taskin Ahmed b Nortje 10

Hasan Mahmud run out 0

Mustafizur Rahman not out 9

EXTRAS (B-4, LB-1, W-4) 9

TOTAL (all out, 16.3 overs) 101

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-26 (Soumya), 2-27 (Najmul), 3-39 (Shakib), 4-47 (Afif), 5-66 (Mehidy), 6-71 (Mosaddek), 7-76 (Noorul), 8-85 (Das), 9-89 (Hasan).

BOWLING: Rabada 3-0-24-1, Parnell 2-0-18-0, Nortje 3.3-0-10-4, Maharaj 4-0-24-1, Shamsi 4-0-20-3.

RESULT: South Africa won by 104 runs.

Published in Dawn, October 28th, 2022