Mumbai: A rampaging South Africa clinched the one-day cricket series with a 3-2 margin after India slumped to a humiliating 214-run defeat in a completely lopsided series decider here today.
South Africa rode on centuries from Quinton de Kock (109), Faf du Plessis 133 (retired hurt) and AB de Villiers (119) to post a mammoth 438 for four while batting first as India were bowled out for 224 in 36 overs.
Opener de Kock's 87-ball knock was laced with 17 fours and a six—his eighth century overall and fifth against India. Du Plessis's 115-ball stay at the crease was punctuated by 9 fours and 6 sixes while De Villiers, who hit his third ton of the series, hit 3 fours and 11 sixes in his 61-ball knock to completely demoralised the hosts.
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Shell-shocked, the home team batsmen could not deal with the herculean task of scoring at 8.78 runs an over and down without much fight to leave the capacity crowd thoroughly disappointed with their lacklustre display that came as an anti-climax at the end of a well-fought series.
Out-of-touch opener Shikhar Dhawan made 60 in 59 balls, while Ajinkya Rahane showed how good he was on top of the order while making a quick fire 87 in 58 balls with 3 sixes and 9 fours before falling to Dale Steyn.
Among the other leading batsmen, Rohit Sharma (16) and Suresh Raina (12) got starts before departing while last match centurion Virat Kohli flopped and skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni was ninth out for 27.
Pace spearhead Dale Steyn took 3 for 38 while youngster Kagiso Rabada impressed again with figures of 4 for 41. Leg spinner Imran Tahir (2 for 50) and Kyle Abbott (1 for 39) were the other successful bowlers.
The visitors, thus, clinched the best-of-five series, having won the first (in Kanpur), third (Rajkot) and the decider here while India kept themselves in the hunt with victories in the second (Indore) and fourth (Chennai) games.
This was also the visitors' first-ever win at this ground after three straight losses earlier to the hosts.
The visitors thus won their first ODI bilateral rubber in India, after having lost three (in 1991-92, 1999-2000 and 2009-10), and drawn the other (2005-06) in previous attempts.
They won the preceding best-of-three T20 series 2-0 (one game was washed out).The two teams now will fight it out in the four-Test series to follow from November 5 in Mohali.
