De Kock’s 23rd century in vain as Jaiswal sinks Proteas in third ODI

India claimed a 2-1 series win against the Proteas after the tourists suffered a batting collapse in the second half of their innings in Visakaphatnam on Saturday.

KL Rahul’s side eased to a nine-wicket win after bowling South Africa out for 270 in the 48th over. They reached the target thanks to a maiden ODI century for the talented left-hand opener Yashasvi Jaiswal with 61 balls to spare, to secure a morale boosting series win that will ease some of the pressure on their coach Gautam Gambhir following the Test series loss.

Jaiswal finished with an unbeaten 116 — a workmanlike display in which the intense focus he showed to survive Marco Jansen’s opening spell bore the sweetest fruit.

South Africa innings collapsed in an ugly heap with the loss of eight wickets in 20 overs for 112 runs, as a somewhat frenetic approach proved extremely costly.

The Proteas had started superbly after being asked to bat by Rahul, who won India’s first toss in an ODI in two years, with Quinton De Kock and Temba Bavuma sharing a 113-run partnership for the second wicket that provided the perfect foundation for a large total.

Even the timing of the South African captain’s dismissal wasn’t bad. Bavuma had been struggling to rotate the strike and his frustration led to a sloppy shot against wide delivery from Ravi Jadeja that gave Virat Kohli an easy catch at point.

But that provided the powerful Proteas middle order with plenty of time to cause damage. However they failed to take advantage, despite having a set batter in De Kock, who managed the first half of the innings beautifully.

The absence of Tony de Zorzi with a hamstring injury in the second match — which will see him miss the T20 series that starts next week — forced South Africa into a change with Aiden Markram, fresh off a hundred last Wednesday, dropping down the order to No.5 while Ryan Rickelton opened with De Kock.

However Rickelton, whose highest score in his last eight ODI innings is 35, continued to struggle, making a four-ball duck.

After adding 54 for the third wicket with De Kock, Matthew Breetzke was trapped lbw for 24, followed three balls later by Markram’s injudicious drive against Prasidh Krishna.

De Kock completed his 23rd ODI century — his second since reneging on his international retirement — off only 89 balls, belting eight fours and half-a-dozen sixes, but was the fifth wicket to fall with his score on 106, as Krishna, taken apart early by the left-hander earlier, exacted revenge with a lovely yorker.

Everything felt rushed from the South Africans, who seemed determined to post 350 rather than build towards a total that might make the Indian batters wary. Krishna and left-arm wrist-spinner each took four wickets.

Even with dew not as prevalent as the first two matches of the series, South Africa’s total was well below par and an opening partnership of 155 between Jaiswal and the veteran Rohit Sharma, who made 75 — his 61st half-century — took away any hope the tourists had of attaining an unlikely win.

After centuries in the first two matches, Virat Kohli scored 65 not out on Saturday to justifiably finish with the player of the series award with an aggregate of 302 runs.

Meanwhile, the Proteas’ management also confirmed that Nandre Burger had picked up a hamstring injury in Wednesday’s match. Unlike De Zorzi, Burger wasn’t part of the squad for the five-match T20 series which starts in Cuttack on Tuesday. No replacement was called up for De Zorzi.

Fast bowler Kwena Maphaka was also ruled out of the series after suffering a setback during his rehabilitation for a left hamstring injury, picked up in a domestic Four-Day fixture. His place in the squad has been taken by his DP World Lions teammate Lutho Sipamla.