South Africa registered a convincing win by 134 runs over Australia in the 10th match of the ongoing ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow on October 12. Australia won the toss and opted to bowl first.

Put into bat, Quinton de Kock smashed his second successive century in the tournament whereas Aiden Markram scored a quick fifty as well and they posted 311 runs in 50 overs. While chasing, Australia lost quick wickets in between and no other batter could manage to contribute much as well. Marnus Labuschagne top-scored with 46.

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Who said what after the match?

Temba Bavuma: I do think 311 was a couple over par, probably 290-300 was par. I guess I’m glad we lost the toss because we wanted to chase as well. I was scratchy with the bat, found it hard but Quinton (de Kock) needs to be given credit for the way he played. I think I’d be really greedy if I said there are things we can improve. It was almost the perfect game. The bowlers bowled really well, they have been under some slap but looking at all the phases, I think the guys really dominated.

I’ll take that as our second game. Need to acknowledge the batting effort, the bowling effort was all about being clinical. Lungi (Ngidi) taking the new ball and KG (Rabada) showing intensity is what we’re looking for. In our team, character is the biggest thing we’ve spoken about. You can’t overlook the good work we’ve done, let’s take the confidence and learnings. Let’s celebrate it and come back for the next one.”

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Pat Cummins: “I thought Quinton (de Kock) batted really well, couldn’t get a breakthrough. From where they were, we were quite happy with 310, thought it was chaseable. Looked like hard work out there tonight, their bowlers bowled really well, think it nipped around a bit more under lights. (On if it would’ve been easier to bat first) Really hard to say, if we want to be challenging in this tournament we need to find ways of performing regardless of batting first or second. Don’t think much needs to be said tonight, everyone’s hurting, we’ll try and take a couple of days off and then make amends to come back stronger in the next one. There’s a few things we need to tidy up.”

Quinton de Kock, who won the Player of the Match, said: “It was a great win for the boys, to be honest, we didn’t know how the pitch would play, we assessed the conditions beautifully and then applied ourselves well with the bat. The guys who spent time on the wicket, got a hand on the conditions and then used their scoring options. 311 was an above par score, I have played here for the Lucknow team (in the IPL), it becomes harder to bat second.

The wicket does change a bit. It was sweaty and humid, the bowlers were on top of their game, no real loose balls and they picked early wickets. I think we are keen to prove ourselves, we played well, but it’s just 2 games, the World Cup is a long tournament and games come quickly around, we will take it on a match-by-match basis.”