De Villiers delivers for SA against Mumbai XI

MUMBAI: Arriving here for the World T20 last week, South Africa were unsure about their opening combination in the competition. They were yet to take a call on who among the trio of AB de Villiers, Quinton de Kock and Hashim Amla would open for them. But, at the end of their two practice matches, it's pretty clear that De Kock and Amla will be batting at the top of the order when they take on England at the Wankhede on Friday.
The duo took first strike in the opening game against India as well as their game against Mumbai XI on Tuesday at the Brabourne Stadium, a game that the South Africans won pretty convincingly, by eight wickets.
Chasing 189 for victory, they reached the target in 17 overs itself, but chose to make the best of the remaining three overs. A revised target of 230 was set and they fell short of it by only one run, with de Villiers hitting 19 in it. Skipper Faf du Plessis emerged top-scorer with 65 before retiring. De Villiers, who was rested for the game against India, got a hit, scoring 52 by the time his team overhauled 189. Amla too came good, with 38 and put on 76 runs with Du Plessis.
Earlier, Mumbai rode on skipper Akhil Herwadkar's 45-ball 61 to post a stiff target for their opponents. The opener, who put on 75 for the first wicket with Shashank Singh (29 runs, 21 balls, 5x4, 1x6), started off on a convincing note in the first over itself when he hit pacer Dale Steyn for a couple of boundaries.
His innings was laced with eight His innings was laced with eight fours and a couple of sixes, one o which landed on the roof of the West Stand off Kyle Abbott's bowling. Another promising youngster Armaan Jaffer, too, impressed in his 12-bal stay, hitting an unbeaten 24. He put on 57 runs along with David Wiese, who stayed unbeaten on 34.
Like England did on Monday South Africa chose to field four o their players -JP Duminy , Farhaan Behardien, Wiese and Imran Tahir -in the opposition XI. On the other hand, Mumbai opted to rest Shreyas Iyer and Jay Bista who played against England.