‘Absolutely Best’ de Villiers leads onslaught as Proteas slay the Tigers in Paarl
CAREER best performances from AB de Villiers and Andile Phehlukwayo set the Proteas on their way to a thumping 104-run win over Bangladesh to hand South Africa the one day series with a match to play, in Paarl, yesterday.
If the first two matches of the series are anything to go by, East London fans will be in for an absolute treat when the third match of the series is played at Buffalo Park on Sunday with Bangladesh looking to save face while the Proteas will want to seal a clean sweep of the series.
In yesterday’s match De Villiers smashed a brilliant 176 off 104 balls as the Proteas powered their way to 353/6 after Bangladesh won the toss and inserted them to bat.
Phehlukwayo then picked up the baton in the visitors innings to return figures of 4/40 as Bangladesh were all out for 249.
The visitors initially made a decent fist of the chase and were at one stage in with a shot on 162/2 in the 29th over thanks to a threatening 93-run stand between Imrul Kayes (68) and Mushfiqur Rahim (60).
However, once those two fell the final eight wickets then tumbled for 87-runs with only Mahmudullah (35) showing some fight against Phehlukwayo chief destroyer, backed up well by Imran Tahir who returned figures of 3/50 to seal a comfortable win.
In the South African innings AB de Villiers’s career-best one-day score flew all around Paarl’s picturesque ground.
De Villiers 176 featured 15 fours and seven sixes to power South Africa the highest total in the 11 ODIs played at the ground.
Proteas 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.
De Villiers was finally dismissed 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 to earn figures of 4/62.