Mumbai: South Africa absolutely bamboozled England by 229 runs in the 20th match of the ICC World Cup 2023 at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai, India on Saturday.

The massive victory has surely made things easy for the Proteas in terms of net run rate (NRR) while the defending champions will need to do something unique to still think about seeing themselves in the event’s semi-finals.

Not a single English batter could hold their nerves and fell badly in front of the devastating African bowling attack as three of their four top-order batters — Dawid Malan, Joe Root and Ben Stokes — failed to score in double digits.

England were on their way to suffering a 300-run defeat but a valiant effort by their tailenders, Gus Atkinson and Mark Wood, saved them as both batters built a 70-run partnership with the latter scoring an unbeaten 43 runs on 17 deliveries.

Wood top scored for England with 43 runs as the entire English batting lineup was all out for just 170 runs after losing wickets in quick succession.

All of the Proteas’ bowlers — Lungi Ngidi, Marco Jensen, Kagiso Rabada, Keshav Maharaj and Gerald Coetzee — wreaked havoc on the English batters and sent them all back to the pavilion.

Batting first, South Africa posted a massive 400-run target courtesy of a formidable batting display of their top and middle order.

Despite losing an early wicket of Quinton de Kock for just four runs in the first over, the Proteas did not falter and continued to play with the attacking mindset as Reeza Hendricks and Russie van der Dussen built an important 121-run partnership.

The remaining damage to the English bowlers was done by the 151-run stand between Heinrich Klaasen and Marco Jensen.

Klaasen scored a rapid century, scoring 109 runs off just 67 delivers with 16 boundaries while Jensen contributed 75 runs off just 42 delivers, which included a blistering knock of nine boundaries.

For England, Reece Topley picked three wickets while Gus Atkinson and Adil Rashid bagged two each but it was not enough in front of the destructive Proteas batting.

South Africa will now play Bangladesh on October 24 at the same venue while England will take on Sri Lanka in Bengaluru on October 26.