Australia beat South Africa by a huge margin of 123 runs in the second ODI of the five-match series with centuries from David Warner and Marnus Labuschagne. And with this victory, Ajira came to the top with 121 rating, removing Pakistan in the ICC ODI rankings. Pakistan is second in the list with 120 rating.
Australia lost the toss and batted first in Bloemfontein. Two openers Warner and Travis Head gave the team a great start of 109 runs off 71 balls. Head completed his half-century with 26 balls in the pair. He scored 64 runs off 36 balls with 9 fours and 3 sixes before getting out.
Skipper Mitchell Marsh hit a golden duck at number three. After that, Warner and Labuschagne showed dominance over the South African bowlers in the third wicket. They added 151 runs playing 124 balls. Warner played 85 balls to get the 20th century of ODI career in this pair. Warner returned with 106 runs.
Then Labuschenne scored his second century in the 80-ball ODI. Labuschenne stopped at 124 runs off 99 balls with 19 fours and 1 six. Josh English scored 50 runs in 37 balls and Australia got a huge collection of 392 runs for 8 wickets in 50 overs.
Two South African openers, Quinton de Kock and the centurion of the previous match, Temba Bavuma, started with 81 runs in 9 overs with a target of 393 runs. De Kock 45 and skipper Bavuma returned with 46 runs.
South Africa’s middle order could not play as big an innings as the two openers. Heinrich Klaasen and David Miller tried to fight by playing the highest innings of 49 runs. South Africa lost by 269 runs in 41.5 overs.
(10 September/MM)