Proteas down Zim in opening CWC match
The Proteas were made to work hard for their win against Zimbabwe in their first match of the 2015 Cricket World Cup.
Proteas captain AB de Villiers won the toss and sent his team in to bat. They went on to lose four wickets for less than 100 runs, leaving them on the brink of collapse, until David Miller and JP Duminy came in to steady proceedings.
Duminy and Miller went on to build a partnership of 256 runs, with scores of 115 and 138 runs, respectively. The two batsmen bludgeoned the Zimbabwean bowling attack in the last ten overs, scoring 146 runs to propel the team to a total of 339 for the loss of four wickets. In the process, they set the record for a fifth-wicket partnership.
Zimbabwe started their innings strongly, with both Chamu Chibhabha and Hamilton Masakadza scoring half centuries (64 and 80 runs, respectively). SA fast bowlers Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel both took punishment from the Zimbabwe batting attack, while Imran Tahir was the pick of the SA bowlers, taking three wickets for 36 runs in his ten overs. Vernon Philander also managed a tidy two wickets for 30 runs.
Despite some adventurous hitting from the Zimbabweans, the Proteas eventually managed to bowl them out for 277, giving the South Africans a victory of 62 runs. SA go on to face India in their next match on Sunday the 22nd of February, while Zimbabwe will go up against the United Arab Emirates on Thursday the 19th.
Great win from the boys! Thank you all for your support and messages.. privilege to play with this squad! #CWC15 #ProteaFire
— David Miller (@DavidMillerSA12) February 15, 2015
Here's the Player of the Match from #SAvZIM and it's David Miller for his stunning century #cwc15 #TwitterMirror pic.twitter.com/qw00o6rsMq
— ICC (@ICC) February 15, 2015
