The HITMAN played the anchor in India’s 6-wicket victory as he carried his bat with an unbeaten 122 off 144 balls, his innings studded with 13 fours and two sixes.
By the virtue of his magnificent innings, Rohit bagged the Player of the Match award. He brought up his 23rd ODI century and went past former skipper, Sourav Ganguly to become the third batsman with the most number of tons for India.
Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar tops the list with 49 hundreds while captain Virat Kohli is 2nd on the list who is 8 tons away from equalling his idol's World Record.
On Wednesday night, Rohit also became the first Asian batsman to hit a hundred in this World Cup so far. It was his second century in the World Cups.
With his unbeaten score of 122, Rohit set the second-highest individual score by an Indian batsman against South Africa in a Cricket World Cup match. The record holder is Shikhar Dhawan with 137 runs that he amassed at Melbourne in the 2015 edition.
Here are Rohit Sharma’s century highlights
Earlier, Chahal (4/51) was the chief tormentor for the tottering Proteas batting line-up, picking four wickets and producing the second best spell by an Indian on World Cup debut.
Mohammed Shami's 4/35 against Pakistan in the 2015 edition is the best performance by an Indian bowler on World Cup debut.
Star pacer Jasprit Bumrah (2/35) accounted for the wickets of openers Hashim Amla and Quinton de Kock to start the slide.