Australia were left shell-shocked as Quinton de Kock (178 from 113 balls) slammed one of the most brutal One Day International innings in recent times to take South Africa to a 6-wicket win in the first ODI at Centurion on Friday.
The hosts chose to field first on an easy paced Centurion wicket, and Australia, through an excellent lower order stand from George Bailey (74 from 90) and John Hastings (51 from 56), trundled to 294/9. Medium pacer Andile Phehlukwayo starred with the ball for South Africa, taking 4/44.
De Kock put every Australian bowler to the sword to take en route to his thrill-a-minute hundred. It was also the second highest individual score by a South African batsman in ODI cricket, 13 runs short of Gary Kirsten's unbeaten 188 against the United Arab Emirates in 1996, a record which has remained intact for 20 years. De Kock took the pacers out of the attack with ample help from an aggressive Rilee Rossouw (63 from 45). Together, Rossouw and De Kock hammered 145 for the first wicket in just 103 balls.
It was after Rossouw's departure that De Kock truly cut lose. After pulling and hooking the pacers in the early overs, the 24-year-old used his feet and went over the bowlers head, even smashing rookie spinner Adam Zampa for three consecutive sixes at one point. The southpaw smashed 11 sixes in total along with 16 boundaries. With the target well within sight, South Africa lost skipper Faf du Plessis, JP Duminy and De Kock in quick succession. Pacer Scott Boland, after being picked apart in his first spell, came back strongly to effect a triple strike late in the game.
Brief Scores:
Australia 294/9 in 50 overs (George Bailey 74, John Hastings 51; Andile Phehlukwayo 4/44) lost to South Africa 295/4 in 36.2 overs (Quinton de Kock 178, Rilee Rossouw 63; Scott Boland 3/67) by 6 wickets
