CWC2023: Klaasen , bowlers helps South Africa maul England by 229 runs , Lanka beats Netherlands

South Africa after suffering a shock defeat to unfancied   Netherlands came out all guns blazing as they put on a powerhouse batting performance to completely slaughter the pre tournament favourites England at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai under lights . 

England, the last world champion, is not in a good form in the current World Cup.  Jos Buttlers team had to lose to South Africa this time after losing to  Afghanistan in the previous match.  England could not stand chasing runs against South Africa.  In the end they lost by a huge margin of 229 runs.  This is England's biggest defeat in terms of runs.

 England won the toss and elected to bowl first at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.  South African captain Temba Bavuma did not play in this match due to illness.  Aiden Markram led the way.  Reeza Hendricks came in to open with Quinton de Kock instead of Bavuma.  South Africa's in-form opener D'Kock was dismissed in the first over. After  a cover driven four , De Kock was caught behind oft Topley on the second ball .  After that Rassi van der Dusen paired with Hendricks for the second wicket.  The two continued to advance the team's cause with a solid partnership after a slow start .

 Both South African batsmen scored half centuries.  Van der Dussen was dismissed for 60 runs after top edging Rashid .  After that Markram paired with Hendricks who  scored a classy 85 runs and played several sparkling shots before getting bowled to Rashid .  Markram was also playing well.  He got out after scoring 42 runs.  David Miller was out cheaply 

A few wickets fell in a row and South Africa came under some pressure.  From there, Heinrich Klaasen and Marco Jansen pulled the team to an entirely  different direction .  With belligerent strokeplay , they put the team in the driver's seat.  England's pacers were thrashed by the two batsmen with breathtaking strokeplay as fours and sixes came thick and fast much to the delight to the full weekend  crowd at the stadium .  From the 40th over, big runs were coming every over . Klassen's legs were cramping and he couldn't run much.  As a result, he focused on playing big shots.  He scored a hundred in just 61 balls.  Klaasen was dismissed for 109 runs in the last over off 67 balls 

 Jansen was also playing big shots towards the end as he hit several dazzling 4s and 6s   In the end, South Africa scored 399 runs for 7 wickets in 50 overs.  Jansen remained unbeaten with a breathtaking 75 runs off 42 balls.

 In response, England's batting faced the quality  pacers of South Africa as the ball moved under lights .  Jonny Bairstow, David Malan, Joe Root were packed off quickly . Bairstow (10)  skied Ngidi to Dussen , Root (2) and Malan (6) were dismissed by Jansen to legside catches . Ben Stokes got a chance in the team in this match.  He did not say long.  He scored only 5 runs with the bat and was caught and bowled by Rabada .  The onus was on Harry Brook and captain Buttler to push England's run forward.  But they also failed in this match after playing few good shots .  Gerald Coetzee dismissed  them in the same over getting Buttler (15) caught behind and Brook (17) lbw to a fast straight ball .  England lost 6 wickets for 68 runs.  The was almost over .  Lower order  batters play some big shots.  Without Mark Wood (43 not out off 17 balls) and Gus Atkinson (35) , England would have faced a bigger embarrassment.  They made a pair of half-centuries.  As a result, the  margin of defeat has narrowed slightly.  In the end, England scored 170 runs for 9 wickets in just 22 overs.  ReeceTopley did not play due to injury.  England lost by 229 runs. For the Proteas Coetzee took 3 wickets while Jansen and Ngidi took 2 each.   This loss will give England a big blow in the World Cup and also will damage their net run rate .  On the other hand, a big win against England will boost South Africa's morale after losing to the Netherlands in the previous match. Klaasen for his breathtaking century was the player of the match.  

Sri Lanka v Netherlands 

Earlier at Lucknow in a day game , Sri Lanka won their first World Cup game in this edition  .  They defeated the Netherlands by 5 wickets in Lucknow.  As a result of this win,  Sri Lanka got their 1st points . However, the Netherlands had their chances to win the match.  Their bottom order batsmen covered up the failure of the team's top order.  But the bowlers could not win the team.

 Netherlands won the toss and decided to bat first.  But the beginning was not good for them.  The team's top and middle order did not get runs.  There was a bit of moisture on the Lucknow wicket at the start.  The Sri Lankan bowlers used it well as Rajitha and Madhusanka both were able to get a bit of movement that troubled the Dutch batters .  Netherlands lost 6 wickets for just 91 runs.  It seemed that they will not be able to score even 150 runs.  Sybrand Engelbrecht and Logan van Beek pulled the team from there.

 A partnership of 130 runs was forged between the two batsmen.   The Sri Lankan bowlers lost a bit of momentum in the counter attack.  Both batsmen scored fifties.  Where at one time it seemed that 150 runs would not happen, 300 was in sight.  But the Netherlands could not score more runs after Engelbrecht scored a glorious 70 runs and van Beek scored 59 runs.  The team was all out for 262 runs in 49.4 overs.  Dilshan Madushanka and Kasun Rajitha took 4 wickets each for Sri Lanka.

 In reply, Sri Lanka lost Kushal Perera's wicket early in the run chase.  Skipper Mendis also did not get many runs.  Pathum Nissanka and Sadira Samaravikram led the team's innings.  Both continued to bat fluently.  Nissanka scored another fifty.  He was dismissed for 54 but Samaravikrama survived till the end.  He was accompanied by Charith Ashalank and Dhananjay D'Silva during his knock 

 Netherlands were in trouble as they could not pick up too many wickets in the middle overs.  Ashalank scored 44 and D'Silva scored 30 runs.  Sri Lanka easily won the match with 10 balls to spare.  

Samaravikrama remained unbeaten with 91 runs. He looks a promising player for Sri Lanka