South Africa defeats Bangladesh handily in the T20 World Cup thanks to Anrich Nortje’s 4-wicket haul and Rilee Rossouw’s century.

A 163-run partnership between Rilee Rossouw and Quinton de Kock propelled South Africa to a crushing 104-run win against Bangladesh on Thursday. Rossouw also hit the tournament’s first century. De Kock contributed 63 runs, while powerful left-hander Rossouw pounded out eight sixes and seven fours for his 109 as the Proteas avoided the rain to amass an impressive total of 205 for five.

With three top-order wickets, including that of dangerman Shakib Al Hasan for one, paceman Anrich Nortje (4-10) picked up where the batters left off, and Bangladesh was 66-5 after 10 overs and all out for 101 in 16.3 overs. To get 100 points for a good cause is amazing, said Rossouw. Very pleased with my performance today, but what’s more significant is that we earned two points.

South Africa faced the weather once again after winning the toss and deciding to bat in their second Group 2 match after the rain forced the cancellation of their Super 12 opener in Hobart on Monday. The Bangladeshi pacer Taskin Ahmed removed the captain Temba Bavuma in the first over after the early afternoon rains stopped, but it simply brought Rossouw and de Kock together to cause mayhem.

When the rain returned to force a break just before the conclusion of the powerplay, the South African partnership had amassed 60 runs by the time Taskin’s second over went for 21 runs. De Kock’s deep hole caused the innings to drag, and Rossouw’s scary moment came when he was dropped on the boundary at 88 before he singled off the 52nd pitch he faced to reach the century mark.

After the early pyrotechnics, the South Africans had a terrible performance. Shakib eventually got Rossouw out when the batsman hooked a pitch to Litton Das in the covers.

The bulk of the fans cheered for Bangladesh as they made a strong start to their innings, but it was never going to be easy for them to follow up on their first victory in the second round of the T20 World Cup on Monday. While South African spinner Tabraiz Shamsi grabbed 3-20 to keep the wickets falling, Litton led the way with 34 runs, and Nortje came back to finish the job by clean bowling Taskin.