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De Villiers hammers career-best 176

Andile Phehlukwayo took four wickets as South Africa beat Bangladesh by 104 runs in the second one-day international at Boland Park yesterday.

AB de Villiers blasted 176 off 104 balls as SA posted 353/6 before bowling Bangladesh out for 249 to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series

De Villiers raced to his 25th ODI century off 68 balls with 10 fours and a six. He added another five fours and six sixes off the next 36 deliveries before he hit a low full toss from Rubel Hossain to deep mid-wicket with 14 balls remaining in the innings.

The ease with which he found the boundary was in complete contrast to his teammates who managed to hit only five fours and a six between them, struggling to time the ball as it rose slowly off the surface, while the outfield was unusually slow after three days of rain.

De Villiers dominated stands of 136 off 111 balls for the third wicket with Hashim Amla (85) and 111 off 70 balls for the fourth wicket with JP Duminy (30).

SA resisted experimenting with their batting order against opponents they hammered by 10 wickets in the first match of the series in Kimberley on Sunday.

Instead, Amla and Quinton de Kock rattled up an opening stand of 90 inside 18 overs.

But three balls after Shakib Al Hasan ended the partnership by trapping De Kock in front for 46, he clean-bowled Faf du Plessis for a duck.

Not that Bangladesh could make much of their twin strike as Amla and De Villiers added 136 for the third wicket. That stand ended when seamer Rubel Hossain had Amla caught behind for 85.

Almost regardless of what was happening around him, De Villiers was the engine of the innings with his array of ripping strokes.

Bangladesh had no answer to his attacking innovation, and there was more relief than celebration when he holed out to Rubel in the 48th over.

Rubel gave the sizeable contingent of Bangladeshi supporters something to cheer when he dismissed Duminy and Dwaine Pretorius with consecutive deliveries in the last over of the innings.

That earned him figures of 4/62. The final match of the series in on Sunday at Buffalo Park, East London.