Miller, Duminy rescues Proteas at Seddon Park

The Proteas were given an almighty scare by Zimbabwe in their ICC World Cup Pool B opening match this weekend in New Zealand.

Batting first on a slow wicket after losing the toss at Seddon Park, South Africa found themselves on 83 for four.
Key batsmen Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers fell cheaply, scoring 11 and 25 respectively while Quinton de Kock scored 7 and Faf du Plessis only registered 24 runs to his name.

David Miller and JP Duminy had to come to the rescue with both batsmen scoring centuries.
The pair shared an unbroken stand of 256 runs, a new fifth-wicket record for all one-day internationals. Their partnership beat the previous fifth-wicket record of 226 scored by England’s Eoin Morgan and Ravi Bopara against Ireland in Dublin two years ago. This took South Africa’s score to 339 for four.

In reply, Zimbabwe started well and were 191 for two in the 33rd over. Hamilton Masakadza scored 80 runs and Chamu Chibhabha hit 64 runs but after their dismissals, Zimbabwe lost eight wickets for 86 runs.

Imran Tahir was the most successful bowler for South Africa. He took three wickets for 36 runs from his 10 overs. Steyn went for 64 runs from nine overs and grabbed one wicket, while Morkel was belted for 49 from 8.2 overs.

World Cup debutant Miller hit nine sixes and seven fours off 92 balls to better his previous highest score of 130 not out against the West Indies at Port Elizabeth last month. Duminy was not far behind as he smashed three sixes and nine fours off 100 balls.

South Africa next face India in their second match on Sunday at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Australia.