South Africa demolished England by 229 runs in the Cricket World Cup on Saturday to leave the beleaguered defending champions facing an early exit from the tournament.

England fell to its third loss in four matches so far, having previously been defeated by New Zealand and, embarrassingly, Afghanistan.

The Proteas bounced back from their own surprising loss — to the Netherlands on Tuesday — to post 399-7 after being put into bat in stifling conditions in Mumbai. Heinrich Klaasen (109) smashed a 61-ball century and Marco Jansen made unbeaten 75 off 42 balls.

England plunged to 38-4 after 8.1 overs in its reply and was eventually dismissed for 170.

Earlier in Lucknow, Sri Lanka finally notched its first win by beating the Netherlands by five wickets on Saturday in Lucknow, India.

The Dutch, scored a competitive total of 262 on the back of maiden ODI half-centuries from Sybrand Engelbrecht (70) and Logan van Beek (59).

Offspinner Aryan Dutt (3-44) troubled Sri Lanka with the new ball in the batting powerplay before Sadeera Samarawickrama made an unbeaten 91 off 107 balls and eased Sri Lanka to 263-5 for its first points after losses to South Africa, Pakistan and Australia.

Sri Lanka has two points from four games. The Netherlands also has two points but is at No. 8 on better run-rate than both Sri Lanka and Afghanistan.

Source: AP

BDST: 2151 HRS, OCT 21, 2023
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