Ken Borland

Just 52 balls was enough time for Rilee Rossouw to spend at the crease to notch a dazzling century and lead South Africa to a comprehensive 104-run victory over Bangladesh in their T20 World Cup match at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Thursday.

Rossouw proved his world-class credentials with 109 off just 56 balls, an innings of sheer class, skill and power, with the left-hander hitting seven fours and eight sixes to set South Africa up for a formidable score of 205/5. Coming in to bat in the second over, Rossouw found fifth gear quickly and showed his boundary-hitting prowess as well as some clever innovation on the touch-shots.

Having won the toss and elected to bat – surprisingly, given the rain around – South Africa lost Temba Bavuma (2) at the end of the first over. The embattled captain shaped to come down the pitch to Taskin Ahmed, but then just fended at an away-swinger and was caught behind.

But a free-scoring Quinton de Kock and Rossouw hardly skipped a beat though as they added 163 in 13.3 overs, the second-highest partnership in T20 World Cup history, just behind the 166 the legendary Sri Lankan pair of Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara put on against the West Indies in Bridgetown in 2010.

De Kock blazed 63 off just 38 balls in another great display, showing more of the surgeon’s touch as he stroked seven fours and three sixes, and used a variety of sweeps to great effect.

De Kock’s dismissal at 170/2 with five-and-a-half overs left saw South Africa go into their shells a bit as just 35 runs were scored off the last 33 balls. Rossouw took fewer risks as he approached his century, becoming the first batsman from a Full Member nation to score back-to-back T20 International hundreds, something not even Chris Gayle managed. His hundred was also South Africa’s first in the T20 World Cup.

The pitch was also slowing down and Bangladesh fought back superbly with the ball.

But their chase was almost all over bar the shouting by the end of Anrich Nortje’s first two overs as he removed both openers, Soumya Sarkar (15) and Najmul Hossain Shanto (9), in the third over and then trapped Shakib al-Hasan lbw for a single in the fifth over to leave Bangladesh 39/3.

Nortje then returned to knock over Taskin’s rook for 10 to finish with magnificent figures of 4/10 in three-and-a-half overs, Bangladesh being all out for a paltry 101.

Before that, wrist-spinner Tabraiz Shamsi enjoyed his return to form, taking 3/20 in his four overs.

Quinton de Kock was again in great free-scoring form, but Rilee Rossouw said “watch me!” as he plundered a magnificent century to set South Africa up for a formidable score of 205/5 in their T20 World Cup match against Bangladesh at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Thursday.

Rossouw proved his world-class credentials with 109 off just 56 balls, an innings of sheer class, skill and power, with the left-hander hitting seven fours and eight sixes. Coming in to bat in the second over, Rossouw found fifth gear quickly and showed his boundary-hitting prowess as well as some clever innovation on the touch-shots.

Having won the toss and elected to bat – surprisingly, given the rain around – South Africa lost Temba Bavuma (2) at the end of the first over. The embattled captain shaped to come down the pitch to Taskin Ahmed, but then just fended at an away-swinger and was caught behind.

De Kock and Rossouw hardly skipped a beat though as they added 163 in 13.3 overs, the second-highest partnership in T20 World Cup history, just behind the 166 the legendary Sri Lankan pair of Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara put on against the West Indies in Bridgetown in 2010.

De Kock blazed 63 off just 38 balls in another thrilling display, showing more of the surgeon’s touch as he stroked seven fours and three sixes, and used a variety of sweeps to great effect.

At 170/2 with five-and-a-half overs left when De Kock lofted off-spinner Afif Hossain to long-off, one would have expected South Africa to post at least 230. You can forgive Rossouw for taking fewer risks as he approached his century, becoming the first batsman from a Full Member nation to score back-to-back T20 International hundreds, something not even Chris Gayle managed.

But valuable momentum just leaked from the innings, with the pitch also slowing down and Bangladesh fighting back superbly with the ball. Just 35 runs were scored off the last 33 balls as the Proteas also lost Tristan Stubbs (7) and Aiden Markram (10), neither of whom were able to score at more than a run-a-ball.

David Miller and Wayne Parnell were the batsmen at the crease at the end of the innings and they could only score two runs off six deliveries.

Left-armer Mustafizur Rahman was superb, conceding just 25 runs in his four overs, while Hasan Mahmud and left-arm spinner Shakib al-Hasan were also excellent at the death.

The last time the Proteas played against Bangladesh in white-ball cricket was earlier this year when Bangladesh shocked them by winning the ODI series in South Africa, so there is a pace attack that is highly-motivated to do some damage when the two teams meet in the T20 World Cup in Sydney on Thursday.

The Proteas and Bangladesh were meant to play a warm-up game before the tournament, but that was washed out, and the rain then also forced South Africa’s opening match against Zimbabwe to be abandoned without a result. Given their experience in last year’s T20 World Cup, where they lost just their opening game but missed out on the semi-finals on nett run-rate, the Proteas know they have to win all four of their remaining matches to make sure they progress.

“Last year we learnt that every game is so important and we’ve wrapped our heads around having to win everything from here on in to give us the best chance of qualifying for the semis,” paceman Lungi Ngidi said on Wednesday.

“We’re definitely hungry to win, but every team is under pressure. The last time we played against Bangladesh, their batsmen came out pretty aggressively against us. So we will definitely target their top-order.

“They have Shakib al-Hasan to control the middle, but if we cut off the head of the snake up front, then hopefully we can restrict them to as low a total as possible.

“We will play towards our strengths and we have seen that pace has been most successful so far in the tournament. So we would like to attack them with our strength and we will see how they handle that tomorrow [Thursday],” Ngidi said.

The skilful 26-year-old also did not want to sell the Proteas bowling line-up short, saying they embraced talk about them possibly being the best pace attack in the world.

“For people to say we have the best attack in the world is an honour and privilege for us, it gives us lots of confidence as well,” Ngidi said. “It means we can walk with our heads held high.

“It also means we really want to showcase what we have. We have three or four seamers and everyone is better at something than someone else

“It makes the job a lot easier because it becomes pretty difficult with two seamers having to do everything.

“That gives the bowlers the sense of calm and confidence that’s needed in a tournament like this,” Ngidi said.

Unfortunately, there is a high probability of a lunchtime thundershower in Sydney putting a dampener on the Proteas’ efforts once again.

Play starts at 5am.

Cricket South Africa have questioned the timing of former Australian captain Tim Paine’s allegations that the Proteas were also doing illegal work on the ball now that the great ball-tampering scandal of 2018 is back in the news.

Paine inherited the captaincy after Steve Smith was suspended, but stood down in November last year after it was revealed the married cricketer had been sending explicit messages to a Cricket Tasmania employee.

Paine’s autobiography, The Price Paid, was released on Tuesday and his shock accusations will obviously be great publicity for the book. Paine accuses the Proteas of ball-tampering even after Australia’s skulduggery with sandpaper was exposed at Newlands in the third Test, and David Warner, Cameron Bancroft and Smith were sent home in disgrace.

“I saw it happen in the fourth Test of that series. Think about that. After everything that had happened in Cape Town, after all the headlines and bans and carry-on,” Paine writes.

“I was standing at the bowlers’ end in the next Test when a shot came up on the screen of a South African player at mid-off having a huge crack at the ball.

“The television director, who had played an active role in catching out Cam, immediately pulled the shot off the screen.

“We went to the umpires about it, which might seem a bit poor, but we’d been slaughtered and were convinced they’d been up to it since the first Test. But the footage got lost. As it would,” Paine complained.

CSA chief executive Pholetsi Moseki told The Citizen it was upsetting that none of these allegations were made at the time of the numerous investigations that were held, and are now only appearing four-and-a-half years later.

“CSA and Cricket Australia have engaged on this matter and the necessary sanctions levied at the time. Both bodies have reiterated their commitment to a clean game, … above reproach,” Moseki said on Tuesday.

“It is unfortunate that allegations of ball-tampering are emerging at this stage, which information could have been useful had it come out at the time when the rot in the game was being rooted out.

“While CSA respects the rights of individuals to air their opinions, it also calls upon all those who love the game to come forward with any information of misconduct on the field at the appropriate time, and not wait for time to elapse. This will assist the relevant authorities within the system to investigate and institute appropriate relevant sanctions should they be required,” Moseki said.

Without their sandpaper, Australia’s attack in the fourth Test at the Wanderers had as much venom as a granny doing flower-arranging as the Proteas piled up 488 and 344/6 declared. Australia’s batting was equally lame as they crashed to 221 and 119 all out to be thrashed by 492 runs.