Centuries by Aiden Markram, Quinton de Kock, and Rassie van der Dussen guided South Africa to a monumental 102 run triumph against Sri Lanka in their opening match of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup in Delhi on Saturday.

After being asked to bat first, South Africa posted a mammoth total of 428/5 in their allotted 50 overs. Sri Lanka were bowled all out for 326. 

The Proteas will face Australia in their second match on Thursday in Lucknow at 10:30am. 

The Proteas couldn’t have asked for a better start to their World Cup campaign. After winning the toss, Sri Lankan captain, Dasun Shanaka, chose to bowl first, and that decision paid right away when, the Proteas lost their captain Temba Bavuma with just 10 runs on the board.

The South Africans quickly dusted themselves up, and when Van der Dussen arrived in the middle, the 34-year-old, alongside De Kock, started putting Sri Lanka to the sword.

The duo helped the Proteas reach 214/2 in the 30^th over, before De Kock’s departure, courtesy of a short delivery from Matheesha Pathirana.

Van der Dussen continued to knock the ball around the park, before reaching his century from just 103 balls.

He was joined in the middle by the man of the match, Aiden Markram. Markram was deadly in the middle smashing the ball all over the ground. When he arrived at the crease, South Africa were sitting on just over 200 runs. He quickly turned the tide around, reaching his century in just 49 balls, and in the process breaking the record for the fastest century at a World Cup.

“It was a strange one, certainly I didn’t wake up thinking it would turn out like that,” said Markram after the match.

“I gave a couple of balls upfront to get a feel of the wicket,and eventually realised after watching Quinny (Quinton de Kock), and Rassie (Rassie van der Dussen) bat, and having that initial feel it was a good wicket.”

“The outfield was really fast so value for shots is always there – that’s what I was thinking the whole time, if you’re setting up to hit really strong hard cricket shots, the outfield helps you out a lot – it worked luckily tonight, balls hit gaps, they don’t always hit gaps, and it could be a different story – it was a really good pitch and that assisted.”

The Proteas 428/5 in their allotted 50 overs was also the highest total by a team at the World Cup. The three centuries by the trio was also the first time, where a team had three players scoring hundreds in one match at a World Cup.

It was evident in the celebrations after reaching their respective milestones just how much each century meant to the players. 

” It’s quite strange because you almost get this thing that just takes over your body (when you reach a century),” he said.

“I think there’s a lot of passion in this team to give our absolute best at this World Cup and see how far it gets us.”

“We’ve been known for staring slow in a series or ICC events – so we put a lot on emphasis on today’s match, to start well, and play the same cricket we’ve been playing that managed to sneak us into this competition.”

South Africa’s batting line up seems to be firing and ready for the challenging matches that lie ahead. However, a lot of work still needs to be done in regard to the bowling department.

The Proteas bowling attack wasn’t at its best on Saturday. Despite bowling out Sri Lanka, they allowed their opposition to get within the 300 range, something that will cost them heavily against tougher opposition.

Gerald Coetzee finished the match with the best figures on three wickets, for 68 runs in his nine overs. He is followed by Marco Jansen, Kagiso Rabada, and Keshav Maharaj who all picked up two wickets each. Ngidi also picked up a wicket in his eight overs.

However, Markram believes the bowling department played relatively well considering the conditions they were dealt with.

“There’s not too much of a concern, like I said, it was a really good wicket, they were phases where we could’ve been batter.”

“We created a couple of opportunities, and that’s good to see. Hopefully, going forward, we’ll take those opportunities, keep momentum and the pressure on, and maybe reduce them to 50 or 40 runs less, so we’ll look at it from both sides and see how we can improve going into the next match.”