and harmeet

T20 World Cup: Opener Quinton de Kock hammered a 40-ball 74 and skipper Aiden Markram scored 46 off 32 balls to help South Africa reach a mighty total of 194/4 as they batted first against the USA in the opening Super Eight stage match in ICC Men's T20 World Cup here on Wednesday.

The USA, who were the team of the preliminary round after storming into the Super 8 stage on debut by stunning Pakistan, put the mighty proteas in to bat first on winning the toss and the South Africans came up with a fine innings to post a challenging total. The co-hosts had early success when Saurabh Netravalkar had Reeza Hendricks hitting it straight into the hands of Corey Anderson at mid-off.

So, it was left to De Kock to push on with the assistance of Aiden Markram, hitting a brilliant 74 off 40 balls -- including seven fours and five sixes. He reached his half-century off 27 balls. He was eventually removed by a smartly delivered full toss from Harmeet Singh, caught by Shayan Jahangir. he and Markram raised 110 runs for the second wicket to take South Africa past the 110-run mark.