South Africa stand-in captain Aiden Markram has praised “free spirit” Quinton de Kock following his stellar performance against Bangladesh in their Cricket World Cup match on Tuesday.

De Kock hit 174, his third hundred in five games, to help South Africa get to 382-5 against Bangladesh in their World Cup match before they won by 149 runs.

Markram, who scored a stylish 60 during a 161-run stand with De Kock, said there was more to the 30-year-old’s game than just natural talent. De Kock is known for being a great shot-maker.

“We all know Quinton to be the free-spirited guy that he is, but he actually has a fantastic cricket brain on him,” said Markram.

“He assesses conditions really well and communicates that to us off the field even before we’ve walked out to bat.

“So, it adds a lot of value in that regard. And then you never want to clip his wings really. You just want to let him fly.”

Heinrich Klaasen scored 90 on his return to Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium, just a few days after scoring a hundred in a 229-run thrashing of reigning champions England. The Proteas scored 144 runs in the last 10 overs.

It was never in doubt that Bangladesh would lose; only a hundred from 37-year-old Mahmudullah kept them in the game.

De Kock has scored 407 runs, more than Virat Kohli’s 354, making this the tournament’s top scorer. This is what De Kock has said will be his last major one-day international event.

But he played down his innings, which came after scoring 100 and 109 in South Africa’s first two games, against Sri Lanka and Australia.

“To be honest I am a bit more tired than satisfied. It was a great day out for the guys,” he said.

Then, De Kock got cramps and had to leave the pitch for the whole Bangladesh innings. Klaasen filled in as wicketkeeper.

“He has been amazing, I need some of the juice he is having!,” said De Kock of Klaasen.

“He has been really special this year and long may it carry on.”

South Africa beat Bangladesh by five runs in the fourth over, but they had to wait until the 47th over to win, even though they had already won four of their five World Cup games.

South Africa didn’t have fast bowler Anrich Nortje with them when they went to India because he hurt his back.

Markram didn’t care too much about how they bowled in the end, though.

“Mahmudullah played fantastically well. You are never practising in a match but we thought we would switch to ‘death bowling’ with him.

“But if it goes wrong, the ball tends to disappear.”

Markram was in charge of the team again while Temba Bavuma was sick, and he said that he thought the regular captain would be back for the Proteas’ next game, which is on Friday against Pakistan in Chennai.

“He has improved quite a lot but wasn’t quite ready for today. Hopefully he can keep improving and be ready for Pakistan.”

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