South Africa vs England: de Kock heroics propels team to victory

GROS ISLET: In South Africa vs England clash on Friday, de Kock once again proved why South Africa’s biggest asset, speeding to 65 to cruise the South Africans to a 7-run win over England.

The crowd at the Darren Sammy Stadium in Gros Islet, Saint Lucia, was treated to an electrifying South Africa vs England match where both teams gave it their all. For once, the match didn’t feel one-sided.

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The 45th match of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 saw England win the toss. Captain Jos Buttler opted to bowl first.

The English bowlers appeared to be in a competition to see who could yield the most runs. Adil Rashid, despite taking a wicket, was willing to concede 20 runs in his four overs.

Moeen Ali must have been disappointed taking a single wicket from the South African team. The English bowler ended up conceding 25 runs in his three overs!

But that’s not all! The English bowling sensation, Jofra Archer, decided to be the most generous of them all. He generously gifted a whopping 40 runs to the South African batters on a silver platter. Looks like he might have felt really bad after taking three wickets. Great compensation we must say.

Credit must be given to the South African batters as they steered the match towards victory. Among the top scorers, Reeza Hendricks hit 19 runs off 25 balls.

David Miller narrowly missed his half-century by just 7 runs—the exact margin they won the match by—scoring 43 runs off 28 balls.

However, it was Quinton de Kock who stole the show. He smashed boundary after boundary, thrashing the English bowlers as he raced to 65 runs in just 38 balls. The mad lad not only had the audience on their edge of their seats, but also impressed everyone enough to receive the player of the match award.

South Africa set an impressive target of 164 against the tea-drinking, scone-eating nation. The team cruised to 163 for the loss of six wickets in 20 overs.

English batters really brought the heat! Harry Brook swung his way to a half-century plus three more runs in just 37 balls. Liam Livingstone joined the fun, smashing a couple of boundaries on his way to 33 runs off a brisk 17 balls.

The captain decided to let his fellow batters shine and pulled 17 at a loss of 20 balls.

While the English batters might have fallen short of the 164 target, they were able to knock their way to 156 at loss of same exact number of wickets as their rivals. (Lots of coincidence in this match, eh?)

South African bowler Ottneil Baartman decided to join his English counterparts in Generous Run-Giving, yielding over 27 runs to English batters in his three overs. He did take one wicket in exchange though.

Kagiso Rabada joined Baartman even more generously. He decided taking two wickets while conceding 32 runs in his four overs was more than a good bargain.

While Keshav Maharaj might not have been called to the Generous Run-Giving meeting the day before, he still happily thought 25 runs in his four overs was not so bad in exchange for 2 wickets.

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The next match is between the tournament’s hosts: United States and West indies at 5:30 am Pakistan Standard Time (PST) on Saturday (today).

Meanwhile, India will face off against fellow South Asians, Bangladesh right after at 7:30 am PST.