South Africa registered a convincing win by 229 runs over England in the 20th match of the ongoing ICC Cricket World Cup 2023. England won the toss and opted to bowl first. Put into bat, South Africa lost their in-form opener very early but Reeza Hendricks scored 85.

While Rassie van der Dussen scored a quick 60, it was Heinrich Klaasen who smashed a swashbuckling 109 off 67 with 12 fours and 4 sixes. And, South Africa managed to put up a massive total of 399. While chasing, England started losing wickets from the beginning. They were never in the chase where Gerald Coetzee picked up 3 wickets. Lungi Ngidi and Marco Jansen claimed 2 wickets and bundled England to 170 as well.

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Who said what after the match?

Aiden Markram: “Fantastic all-round performance. Was a great effort. We know England like chasing. We were comfortable batting first. Thankfully, our pacers were not roasted bowling first under the sun. Really great knock from Reeza. He has been around for a long time. That helped. He has been practising every day. Got rewarded today. We have Miller at 6 and Klaasen at 5. That’s a destructible pair. [on Jansen] Fantastic to see that he showcased his ability on a global stage like this. Jansen is having a great time. He takes a pride in his batting. He has been practising a lot. Had a great partnership with Klaasen. That loss hurt us. Great way to bounce back.”

Jos Buttler said: “Incredibly disappointing. We were well beaten. We have come here to play our best cricket. Lots of things didn’t go to plan in the first innings. Reece picked up the injury. The boys fought hard. We could have restricted to 340-350, could have been a good chase. Incredibly tough under the heat. Could have been a good chase had we gotten off to a good start. The humidity was one of the challenges. Was tough. We needed to get off to a very good start. Couple of dismissals down the leg-side didn’t help. Leaves us with no room for error. Need to win every game from here on.”

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Heinrich Klaasen, who won the Player of the Match: “One of my best (knocks) ever, I was hitting the ball nicely, this knock will go down as one of my better ones. It was proper heat, saps all the energy out of you. The heat out there was extreme. They (England) were physically under the pump but a couple of wickets got them back in. Next level (Jansen’s knock). This award needs to go to him (Jansen).

He kept me going and pumped me up saying you are not leaving the ground without an 100. He has been phenomenal, has been batting so well. The runs he scored were so vital for us. That loss (against Netherlands) was a tough one, but we know we are playing good cricket. One loss doesn’t make us a bad team. Had some chats and our boys bounced back with the training sessions. It was a fantastic performance today.”