South Africa vs Australia, second semi-final: Quinton de Kock can’t even open the account at the biggest moment
New Delhi:
World Cup 2023 India’s explosive batting in the Ind vs Nz semi-final on Wednesday made it look like another semi-final was being played between South Africa and Australia at the Eden Gardens. Millions of fans were hoping that in this match as well, they will see the same performance as shown by Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill. And when South Africa won the toss and elected to bat first, it looked like Africa’s batsmen would play baseball cricket in a manner similar to that seen in some league matches, but as it turned out, an unwanted record was created here.
It was a relief that I didn’t get first place.
The thing is that while fans were expecting explosive batting in the power-play (first 10 overs), both captain Bavuma and Quinton de Kock failed. Both returned to the pavilion before the end of six overs and could not even touch double figures. The result was that South Africa could score only 18 runs for the loss of two wickets in the power bat. This was the joint second time in ODI history that a team managed to score just 18 runs in the power-play. It means that the Africans achieved the unexpected. Before this West Indies scored 18 runs for 3 wickets against Pakistan in the year 2011. The difference was that 2 South African batsmen were out.
Sri Lanka is number one in this matter
Sri Lanka currently hold the record for the lowest power-play runs in the ongoing World Cup 2023, scoring just 14 runs in the first 10 overs at the Wankhede on November 2. This is the match in which Sri Lanka were bowled out for just 55 runs. In fact, the first number is jointly occupied by three teams. Pakistan scored 14 for 2 against Zimbabwe in Brisbane in 2015 and Canada scored 14 for 3 against Zimbabwe in 2011.