Amla, de Kock tons in record-breaking chase

South Africa 282 for 2 (de Kock 168*, Amla 110*) beat Bangladesh 278 for 7 (Rahim 110*, Rabada 4-43) by ten wickets

Kimberley: By gunning down 279, South Africa wrapped up the highest chase in ODIs without the loss of a single wicket.

Hashim Amla (110*) and Quinton de Kock (168*) tons in record-breaking chase and duo registered South Africa's highest ODI partnership for any wicket against any opposition.

In pursuit of 279, de Kock slammed the first ball for four. He made his intentions clear since then. Amla remained relaxed and undeterred at the other end. He carved out another textbook innings and complimented de Kock. The left-hander, in turn, shed off his poor conversion rate by slamming his 13rd century.

Amla, on the other hand, was untroubled like his partner. Bangladesh bowled minimal wicket-taking deliveries and hence resorted to containment. The ploy obviously backfired and they were left with no ideas.

No bowler -- Taskin Ahmed, Rubel Hossain, Mashrafe Mortaza and Shakib Al Hasan - held a tight line to test the batsmen’s patience for long. At most, there were two dot balls in an over before one of the batters rotated strike or notched up a boundary.

Earlier, Bangladesh' wicketkeeper-batsman Mushfiqur Rahim made history on Sunday when he became the first Bangladeshi batsman to get a century against South Africa.

This was also his fifth hundred in one-day internationals. Rahim's knock could not have come at a better time for Bangladesh, considering their dismal performance in the Test series.

His innings of 110 will also instil the much-needed confidence in the Bangladesh side and hopefully rub-off on the bowlers.

After winning the toss skipper Mashrafe Mortaza opted to bat first on a track which seemed friendly for batting.

Bangladesh got off to a steady start but then lost a couple of wickets in the middle overs.

Rahim along with Shakib Al Hasan and later Mahmudullah steadied the ship and stitched crucial partnerships. But it was Rahim's master-class which helped Bangladesh post a competitive score. In his innings, he hit 10 fours and 2 sixes, but most importantly he picked gaps at will and kept the scoreboard moving.

For South Africa Rabada once again provided the breakthroughs and picked up three wickets in his spell.

Dwaine Pretorius and Imran Tahir also picked up wickets to keep the opposition in check. However, the bowlers did leak a few runs towards the end as Bangladesh went on to hit more than 70 runs in the last ten overs.