By Neil Manthorp.
Sanju Samson’s first century for India set up a commanding total of 296-8 and led to a comfortable, series-winning 78-run victory in the third one-day international against South Africa at Boland Park in Paarl on Thursday.
Samson adopted a cautious approach but finished with an excellent 108 from 114 balls (6×4, 3×6) before South Africa were dismissed for 218 in 45.5 overs despite a fine 81 from opener Tony de Zorzi following his match-winning 119* in the second match of the series two days earlier.
South Africa made a strong start to the run chase with an opening stand of 59 inside nine overs before Reeza Hendricks (19) edged a beautiful away-swinger from left armer Arshdeep Singh (9-1-30-4) to ‘keeper KL Rahul.
Rassie van der Dussen laboured for two runs from 17 balls before left-arm spinner Axar Patel bowled him and captain Aiden Markram’s spirited fightback of 36 from 41 balls ended with a reverse-sweep against offspinner Washington Sundar (10-0-38-2) which popped off his glove into the gloves of Rahul.
Heinrich Klaasen’s recent run-drought continued when he drove seamer Avesh Khan to mid off where Sai Sudharsan held a low catch on 21 and when David Miller (10) edged a drive against Mukesh Kumar to Rahul the score was 192-7 and the contest over.
The key wicket, however, was that of in-form De Zorzi who was trapped lbw, on review, by Arshdeep after another entertaining, free-wheeling innings which included six fours and three legside sixes.
Samson’s earlier approach set the tone for the rest of the top order as he appeared to struggle adapting to the pace of the pitch but was fully justified in his conservative method.
It was a largely disciplined bowling performance from the home side with left-arm seamer, Nandre Burger (2-64), knocking back opener Rajat Patidar’s leg stump for 22 from 16 balls but the rest of the top five batsmen struggled to score at anywhere near a run-a-ball.
Captain KL Rahul limped to 21 from 35 balls before a Wiaan Mulder delivery bizarrely looped from his thigh pad onto the back of his bat and into ‘keeper Heinrich Klaasen’s gloves.
Tilak Varma was even slower scoring just six runs from his first 30 balls before finally finding the boundary (5×4, 1×6) to reach 52 from 77 balls before heaving the excellent Keshav Maharaj (10-2-37-1) to Mulder on the boundary.
Axar (1) and Washington Sundar (14) both fell to boundary catches in the final couple of overs with Beuran Hendricks (3-63) the beneficiary on both occasions.
Rinku Singh belted 38 from 27 balls (3×4, 2×6) which helped the tourists gather 93 runs from the final 10 overs which, ultimately, made the difference.
The tourists won the first match at the Wanderers by a resounding eight-wickets after bowling South Africa out for just 116 but the Proteas bounced back with victory by the same margin in the second game at St George’s Park in Gqeberha on Tuesday with a century from opener De Zorzi making light work of a target of 212.
The first of two tests begins at SuperSport Park in Centurion on 26 December with the second, at Newlands in Cape Town, on 3 January.
South Africa: Reeza Hendricks, Tony de Zorzi, Rassie van der Dussen, Aiden Markram (captain), Heinrich Klaasen (wkt), David Miller, Wiaan Mulder, Keshav Maharaj, Nandre Burger, Lizaad Williams, Beuran Hendricks
India: Sai Sudharsan, Sanju Samson, Rajat Patidar, Tilak Varma, KL Rahul (captain/wkt), Rinku Singh, Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan, Mukesh Kumar.