ICC World Cup 2023: South African squad, a force to be reckoned with

Quinton de Kock (Pic: AFP)

The South African team is in dangerous form at the ongoing ICC World Cup 2023, with their opener Quinton de Kock making his ODI swansong special with three centuries so far and their rock-solid middle-order consisting of Aiden Markram, Heinrich Klaasen and David Miller finishing innings with perfection not seen such a long time, in a typical Proteas fashion, brutal and merciless.

With the pace battery consisting of Kagiso Rabada, Marco Jansen and Gerald Coetzee troubling the opposition with their sheer speed, yorkers and accuracy and spinners Keshav Maharaj and Tabraiz Shamsi bamboozling batters, there is very little going wrong going for Proteas at the moment. They did register a loss to the Netherlands in a shocker, but after that they came back with a vengeance, unleashing their wrath on defending champions England and Bangladesh.

SA is in the second place with four big wins and a loss and a total of eight points. Halfway through this tournament, a key trait of Proteas' campaign is the brutality they have shown to their opponents in overs 41-50 with the bat. Quinton and the middle-order trio of Markram-Klaasen-Miller have smashed their opponents all over the park in this phase. Their form is a dangerous omen for all other teams, especially hosts India.

As per ESPNCricinfo, in the phase of overs 41-50 across all their games in the tournament so far, South Africa has smashed a total of 526 runs in just 257 balls. Their run-rate in the 'death overs' batting is 12.28, the highest than any other team. This has made Proteas the most feared team in WC right now.

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At the distant second place is New Zealand, who has smashed 268 runs in 197 balls during this phase, at a run-rate of 8.16.

The undefeated hosts India are at number four, having smashed 80 runs in 65 balls faced in death overs phase, with a run-rate of 7.38. India has not got much chances to showcase their death overs performances as they have finished the games quite quickly so far.

Quinton de Kock (407 runs in five matches at an average of 81.40 and a strike rate of 114.97 with three centuries), Heinrich Klaasen (288 runs in five matches at an average of 57.60 and a strike rate of 150.78, with one century and one fifty) and Aiden Markram (265 in five matches at an average of 53.00 and a strike rate over 123 with one century and two fifties) and David Miller (138 runs in five matches at an average of 46.00 and a strike rate of over 128) are the players which have taken Proteas' death overs batting to another level.

These batters have showcased a lot of variety as a batter. While Quinton is batting aggressively from ball one, he has shown the capacity to stick around till the very end. Markram has largely stayed grounded, but has a fantastic frequency of hitting fours and sixes). He has mixed his classy drives with large aerial hits quite well.

Klaasen has proven to be most destructive hands down, with bowlers fearing that they would get hit for a four or six on every ball. Klaasen has smashed 15 sixes so far, second-highest in the tournament. Miller has not been given much chances to showcase his skills, often coming at the very end. Just like Klaasen, Miller has batted with a 'license to thrill', dealing in fours and sixes.

(With inputs from agencies)