Sports Reporter :
England made an auspicious start in the ICC World Cup Cricket beating South Africa by 104 runs in the opening match at the Oval in London on Thursday.
Sent into bat first, England piled up a mammoth total of 311 for the loss of eight wickets in the allotted 50 overs and then all out South Africa for 207 runs in 39.5 overs.
Ben Stokes, Eoin Morgan, Jason Roy and Joe Root guided their team to score a comfortable total making 89, 57, 54 and 51 runs respectively.
Lungi Ngidi of South Africa grabbed three wickets at the cost of 66 runs, while Kagiso Rabada and Imran Tahir bagged a pair of wickets each instead of 66 and 61 runs respectively.
Opener Quinton de Kock and his teammate Rassie van der Dussen fought back against the tight bowling attack of England scoring 68 and 50 runs respectively. Other batsmen of the Proteas failed to resist the superb bowling attack of English bowlers.
New sensation Jofra Archer played the key role in demolishing South African innings taking three wickets instead of 27 runs. He got a good support from Ben Stokes and Liam Plunkett, who grabbed a couple of wickets each for 12 and 37 runs respectively.
Ben Stokes was adjudged the Man of the Match for his all-round performance.
