Bavuma ton sets up Proteas victory

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A hundred on ODI debut from South Africa batsman Temba Bavuma helped the hosts reach a formidable 354 for 5 from their 50 overs.

Ireland fell well short of the South African total, finishing on 148 all out to lose by 206 runs.

The Proteas innings was built on the back of a brilliant opening partnership between Bavuma and Quinton de Kock that was worth 159 runs.

Bavuma was dropped at slip early in his innings and made the most of the life becoming only the second South African to score a hundred on ODI debut.

De Kock departed for 82, deceived by a ball from Kevin O’Brien, after which Bavuma and skipper Faf du Plessis put on 62 taking the home side to 221 before the captain departed for 21.

Shortly after reaching his hundred, Bavuma lost his wicket trying to push the run rate up, Miller suffered a similar fate departing for 14.

It looked like Ireland might stop the Proteas from getting over the 300 mark but JP Duminy and Farhaan Berhadien really kicked on as both reached fifties with the latter taking just 22 balls to reach the milestone.

In their chase Ireland struggled from the outset and quickly found themselves in trouble chasing a big total as they crumbled to 41 for 3 early on, with Kagiso Rabada, Wayne Parnell and debutant Dwaine Pretorius getting in on the wicket-taking act.

It was South Africa’s spinners through who would achieve the most success as part-timer Duminy picked up 4 for 16 and Aaron Phangiso claimed figures of 2 for 33 from his seven overs.

The only batsmen in the Irish side to show any quality were Paul Stirling (40) and Kevin O’Brien (41) but when they departed Ireland were knocked over in a straight-forward fashion.

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