South Africa stamped their authority on the ICC World Twenty20 on Sunday beating Scotland by a whopping 130 runs, in their first outing in Group D at the Oval in London.

Winning the toss and electing to bat South Africa went out and scored their highest International Twenty20 total of 211 runs. Jacques Kallis and Graeme Smith opening the innings, surprisingly it was Kallis who got off to a quick start, at one point he hit three fours in a row. Kallis was later out for 48 from just 31 deliveries. Only two balls later Graeme Smith (38) skied a ball trying to play one too many shots onto the leg side.

With a solid platform in place Herchelle Gibbs and AB de Villiers came together, both played their natural games from ball one. Herschelle Gibbs pushed to keep the scoreboard ticking but was a little too ambitious charging down the wicket without a care in the world. This aggressive tactic cost him his wicket as he missed one and was stumped by the Scotland wicket keeper.

AB de Villiers played with total control, scoring an unbeaten 79 from 34 balls. de Villiers innings included five fours and six sixes, he brought up his half-century off only 25 balls. The only moment of glory for Scotland came from Kyle Coetzer taking a world class catch diving backwards on the boundary to dismiss Mark Boucher.

Needing more than ten runs per over from the first over, Scotland were always going to be struggle with their inexperienced batsmen. All the South African bowlers contributed to the regular fall of wickets, Scotland eventually gave into the pressure managing only 81 runs from 15.4 overs.

With Australia and England suffering early defeats South Africa will be confident going into their clash with New Zealand on Tuesday evening.

Shaun Custers
SA Cricket Blog