After a sloppy performance in the previous game, South Africa were back to their best in the third and final ODI against Ireland in Dublin on Friday. Hurt over their loss in the previous game, the visitors pulled off a comprehensive victory over the Irish to square up the three-match series 1-1 after the first one-dayer was affected by bad weather.
Opening batsmen Quinton de Kock and Janneman Malan gave The Proteas a dominating start. Having opted to bat upon winning the toss, South Africa saw their openers stitch an outstanding 225-run opening stand. Both De Kock and Malan made centuries on the day. While the former struck 120 off just 91 balls, the latter produced his career-best score of an unbeaten 177 off 169 deliveries.
With that kind of foundation laid, it seemed at one stage that the Proteas would take their score well beyond the 350-mark. But spells from promising left-arm seamer Joshua Little (2/53) and off-spinner Simi Singh (1/52) pulled things back to an extent and helped Ireland keep the damage down to 346/4 – which was still a daunting total.
In the run-chase, South Africa, having rested their ace quick Kagiso Rabada, used an interesting ploy to introduce slow left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj in the first powerplay and reaped the rewards for it. With the asking rate putting extra pressure on the Irish batters, hosts’ two most important players – Paul Stirling (11) and skipper Andrew Balbirnie (7) – made errors in their judgement at the crease and succumbed to Maharaj.
Once those two fell early, it was always going to be a difficult task for Ireland to stay in the contest as their middle-order couldn’t take the fight back to the opposition. The hosts were 92/6 in the 19th over of the chase and were staring at one of their heaviest defeats.
Just then, however, all-rounder Curtis Campher and lower-order batsman Simi Singh combined in a stand full of great character and resolve. They put on 104 runs for the seventh wicket, with Campher reaching his half-century (54) before being dismissed. Simi carried on from there and produced an excellent unbeaten 100 off 91 balls, his first for Ireland. Singh’s knock allowed Ireland to reach as far as 276 all out from 92/6, which would help their net run-rate in the ICC Super League standings.
With Maharaj (2/51) providing the early strikes, his spin partner Tabraiz Shamsi and Andile Phehulkwayo could build further inroads into the Irish innings. They ended with three wickets each, delivering spells of 3/46 and 3/56, respectively.
Brief scores
South Africa 346/4 in 50 overs (Janneman Malan 177*, Quinton de Kock 120; Joshua Little 2/53, Simi Singh 1/52) beat Ireland 276 in 47.1 overs (Simi Singh 100*, Curtis Campher 54; Tabraiz Shamsi 3/46, Andile Phehlukwayo 3/56) by 70 runs.
