Mumbai, Oct 21: Asked by England to bat first, South Africa scored a massive 399/7 in 50 overs, powered by a superb willow act by danger-man Heinrich Klaasen.
In reply, England were reeling at 100/8 in 16.3 overs.
Earlier, Klaasen, the middle order African batter hit a fine century considering the match situation, when he walked into bat at number five.
Till he decided to punish the English bowlers, the 20th match of the ICC ODI World Cup 2023 at the Wankhede Stadium, here on Saturday afternoon, was evenly balanced.
Klaasen hit a hurricane 67-ball 109 to let his side set a 400-run target for 2019 WC champions England. He scored his ton in just 54 balls.
When Klaasen finally left in the first ball of the final over, Africa were comfortably placed at 394/6. He hit 12 boundaries and four 6s in his brutal innings.
When 25-year-old English right arm pacer Gus Atkinson got him bowled, Klaasen has already done the damage.
Apart from him, Reeza Hendricks (85), Rassie van der Dussen (60) and Marco Jansen (75 not out) too played useful knocks.
Earlier, put into bat, Africa's seasoned campaigner Quinton de Kock departed early after putting only 4 runs on the board.
But his new opening partner Reeza Hendricks, who got to open due to regular skipper Temba Bavuma's absence due to an injury, was impressive with his 75-ball 85-run innings. He was unlucky to miss out his ton, as leg spinner Adil Rashid got him LBW.
Man-in-form Rassie van der Dussen hit run-a-ball 60, before falling prey to Rashid again. Dussen was caught by Jonny Bairstow.
Africa's skipper in-charge Adien Markram scored 42, before being claimed by Recce Topley, with Bairstow taking a superb running catch at deep square leg.
David Miller had a very brief stay at the wicket as he was caught by Ben Stokes and Topley claimed his third victim in the match.
Apart from Topley's triple, Atkinson and Rashid got two wickets each.
Earlier, England made three changes in the playing XI that lost to Afghanistan in their last match. As expected, Ben Stokes was back while David Willey and Gus Atkinson came in for Chris Woakes and Sam Curran.
England XI:
Jos Buttler (Captain and keeper), Jonny Bairstow, Dawid Malan, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Harry Brook, David Willey, Adil Rashid, Gus Atkinson, Mark Wood and Reece Topley.
South Africa XI:
Adien Markram (Captain), Quinton de Kock (Wicket-keeper), Reeza Hendricks, Rassie van der Dussen, Heinrich Klaasen, David Miller, Marco Jansen, Gerald Coetzee, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada and Lungi Ngidi.
