South Africa defeat India to take series

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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Quinton de Kock's century was his 17th in 127 one-day internationals

Third one-day international, Cape Town

South Africa 287 (49.5 overs): De Kock 124, Van der Dussen 52; Krishna 3-59

India 283 (49.2 overs): Kohli 65, Dhawan 61, Chahar 54; Phehlukwayo 3-40

South Africa won by four runs; win series 3-0

South Africa won a thrilling third one-day international against India by four runs to seal a series clean sweep.

Quinton de Kock made 124 as South Africa were bowled out for 287 with the penultimate ball of their innings.

India were going well at 116-1 in reply, but Andile Phehlukwayo removed both Shikhar Dhawan and Rishbah Pant in the 23rd over to claw them back.

Virat Kohli fell eight overs later for 65, before India were bowled out for 283 with four balls left.

It completes a disappointing tour for India, who lost a three-Test series 2-1 earlier in January.

De Kock hit 12 fours and two sixes in his 130-ball innings, to win the man of the match and series awards, having scored 229 runs in the three matches.

Rassie van der Dussen also made 52, while Prasidh Krishna, playing just his fourth ODI, took 3-59.

India lost stand-in skipper KL Rahul in the fourth over before Dhawan and Kohli shared 98 for the second wicket.

Phehlukwayo, who took 3-40, broke the partnership when he had Dhawan caught and that allowed South Africa to squeeze.

Shreyas Iyer (26), Suryakumar Yadav (39) and Deepak Chahar (54) made contributions but when Chahar was out after 47.1 overs, India lost their final three wickets for five runs.

Stand-in captain KL Rahul said: "It's quite obvious where we've gone wrong and it's for everyone to see, our shot selection has been really poor as batsmen and our bowlers weren't hitting the good areas consistently.

"We need to look at ourselves in the mirror and have some hard conversations."

South Africa captain Temba Bavuma said: "The complacency got to us when we thought we had the game in the bag but we managed to bring things back – it was a little bit crazy.

"[The series win is] very satisfying, it's mission accomplished for us as a team. Not many people gave us much of a chance."

South Africa are due to travel to New Zealand for a two-Test series in mid-February, before hosting Bangladesh. India begin a home white-ball series against West Indies on 6 February.