South Africa produced a ruthless performance on Saturday to crush defending champions England by 229 runs in Match 20 of the ICC World Cup 2023 in Mumbai. This is South Africa's biggest win in ODI World Cup history against England.
Chasing a mammoth 400 runs for victory, England's innings folded for 170 in 22 overs with Gerald Coetzee taking three wickets.
Lungi Ngidi and Marco Jansen also contributed with two wickets each while Kagiso Rabada and Keshav Maharaj took one apiece at the Wankhede Stadium.
Fast bowler Mark Wood top-scored for the English with 43 not out but the top-order flopped with most getting out in single digits.
Klaasen shows his class
But the match was set up by the Protea batters with the in-form Heinrich Klaasen leading the way as they posted 399 for 7 on the board after being asked to bat first. This is the most runs conceded by England in World Cup history.
Klaasen slammed 109 off 67 balls while Reeza Hendricks (85), Marco Jansen (75 not out) and Rassie van der Dussen (60) scored half-centuries to put South Africa in a commanding position against the defending champions.
'Best ever' ODI hundred
"It's up there with my best ever. The conditions were brutal. It's just proper heat, sapped out all the energy. Was told to not run my runs too hard, save energy cos the heat out is extreme. It was a two overs too early. England also looked under the pump.
"Netherlands was a tough loss. One bad performance doesn't make us a bad team. We had some hard chats, boys bounced back with training sessions. Fantastic performance today," Klaasen said after picking up the Player of the Match trophy.
Tougher challenges await SA & ENG
The Proteas are currently third on the table with three victories from four matches while England dropped two spots to eighth after their third defeat in the last 4 ODIs.
South Africa will face Bangladesh in their next match in Mumbai on October 23 while England will take on Sri Lanka in Bengaluru on October 26.
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