ICC World Cup 2015: David Miller, JP Duminy propel South Africa to 339/4

JP Duminy and David Miller

Hamilton, Feb 15 (IANS) An unbeaten double century stand between David Miller (138 not out) and Jean-Paul Duminy (115 not out) helped South Africa score a mammoth 339 for four against Zimbabwe in a Pool B encounter of the ICC World Cup at the Seddon Park here on Sunday.

The 256-run unbeaten partnership off just 178 balls between Duminy and Miller became the highest partnership for the fifth-wicket in all World Cup matches. The previous best was at Cardiff in 1999 by New Zealand when Roger Twose and Chris Cairns made 148 against Australia.

However, it was not all rosy for one of the pre-tournament favourites. South Africa lost the toss and were put into bat in testing conditions. They were rocked early as wickets tumbled with the Zimbabwean pacers making full use of the helpful conditions. Quinton de Kock (7) fell in the fourth over after the South Africans had made an extremely slow start - scoring just 10 off the first four overs.

Hashim Amla (11) fell four overs later with the South Africans managing just 20 runs. Faf du Plessis (24) and captain AB de Villiers (25) steadied the ship briefly with a 46-run stand for the third wicket. However, both were dismissed in the space of four overs to leave South Africa wobbling at 83 for four.

From that point on, two men took centre stage and after negating the movement, and with the pitch settling down, de Villiers' wicket was the last hurrah for the Zimbabwean bowlers.

After the 40th over, South Africa were 193 for four, going at a run-rate of 4.82 per over. By the end of the 44th over, the Proteas had reached 228 for four and it seemed they would be content to reach a score of somewhere around 280.

However, Miller and Duminy had something completely different in mind. The left-handed duo started teeing off on every ball and that bore some unexpected results. Such was the ruthlessness that the two scored an incredible 111 runs off the final six overs to take South Africa to an imposing score.

Brief Scores:

South Africa 339 for four in 50 overs (David Miller 138 not out, Jean-Paul Duminy 115 not out; Tinashe Panyangara 1-73, Tendai Chatara 1-71) vs Zimbabwe