The 200-run demolition of Bangladesh in East London, was ‘our best performance of the series,’ says stand-in captain AB de Villiers.

‘It was absolutely clinical; we never gave them a sniff and everything worked perfectly for us,’ said De Villiers, who took over the captaincy when Faf du Plessis hobbled off with an injury. ‘It was a great performance on what was a slow wicket.’

The Proteas won the toss and happily chose to bat. From that moment, they were in control.

‘We had a great opening stand [119, between Quinton de Kock and Temba Bavuma] which set us up nicely and there was excellent support batting. And then was some great bowling to finish it off,’ said De Villiers.

After the departure of the openers, Aiden Markram (66)  and Du Plessis (91) shared a stand of 151 for the third wicket, at which point the Proteas had 283 on the board with 10 overs to go. While wickets fell regularly afterward as the batsmen let loose, there was a rapid contribution of 20 from De Villiers, 33 from Farhaan Behardien and an 11-ball 23-run blast from Kagiso Rabada to round off the innings.

‘The most impressive aspect was the performance of the debutants Aiden Markram and Wiaan Mulder, and the batting of Bavuma at the top of the order,’ said De Villiers.

‘I am really excited to see the talent coming through. They all played their part,’ he said.

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