South Africa skipper Faf du Plessis led from the front with a century to steer his team to a narrow 10-run win over front-runners Australia in their final ICC World Cup match at Old Trafford, Manchester, Saturday.
Du Plesis hit exactly 100 off 94 balls, his team’s first hundred in a disappointing campaign, to steer the Proteas to 325 for six before they restricted the Aussies to 315 all out.
Aussie opener David Warner tried his best to guide his team to a record run chase with a brilliant 122 at better than a run a ball. He hit 15 fours and two sixes and shared in a 108-run fifth-wicket partnership with wicketkeeper Alex Carey which kept Australia in the hunt into the last 10 overs. But once Warner was caught by Chris Morris off the first ball of the 40th over from medium pacer Dwaine Pretorius, the South Africans regained the ascendency.
Carey then tried desperately to stay ahead of the increasing run rate before he too perished for 85 off Morris as he tried to rattle off those quick runs and protect the tailenders. His knock featured 11 fours and a six.
Kagiso Rabada was the best bowler for South Africa with three wickets for 56 runs.
The win dented Australia’s hopes of finishing atop the 10-team table, as they slipped to second with 14 points after India (15 pts) beat Sri Lanka (8 pts) earlier in the day to go top. The Aussies will now meet England in the semi-finals on Tuesday while India faces New Zealand for places in the final.
Earlier, Du Plessis shared a 151-run third wicket partnership with Rassie van der Dussen to create the foundation his team needed for their massive total. He hit seven fours and two sixes in his knock. Van der Dussen, meanwhile, denied his maiden ODI century when he was caught on the boundary by Glenn Maxwell trying to hit pacer Pat Cummins out of the ground five runs short of the mark. He hit four sixes and four fours but helped his team keep the momentum to surge past the 300 mark.
Quinton de Kock also contributed a 51-ball 52 with seven fours to the effort.
Aussie pacer Mitchell Starc bagged two wickets for 59 runs, which moved him to 26 wickets in the tournament and into a tie with countryman Glenn McGrath for the most wickets in a single tournament. McGrath achieved his feat in 2007 in the West Indies, when the Australians won the title, but Starc now has at least one more match and possibly two to overhaul that tally.
Off-spinner Nathan Lyon also bagged two for 53.
SCORES:
SOUTH AFRICA 325-6 (50) (Faf du Plesis 100, Rassie van der Dussen 95, Quinto de Kock 52, Mitchell Starc 2/59, Nathan Lyon 2/53) v AUSTRALIA 315 all out (49.5) (David Warner 122, Alex Carey 85, Kagiso Rabada 3/56, Dwaine Pretorius 2/27)
Result: South Africa won by 10 runs