De Kock’s heroics overshadowed as Proteas crumble in crushing collapse

Quinton de Kock scored a brilliant century but wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav and seamer Prasidh Krishna shared eight wickets to keep South Africa in check as they were bowled out for 270 in the third and deciding one-day international against India at the VDCA Stadium in Visakhapatnam on Saturday.

De Kock and captain Temba Bavuma mostly consolidated during the Power Play after the early loss of Ryan Rickelton for a four-ball duck but de Kock burst into life in the ninth over with a hooked six against Krishna.

Krishna’s second over disappeared for 18 with de Kock adding another glorious six over extra cover before slog-sweeping Ravindra Jadeja over the deep square leg boundary.

Bavuma added 113 with de Kock for the second wicket before slashing a wide ball from Jadeja to backward point to depart for a sensible 48 from 67 deliveries but the tourists were well placed for a total well in excess of 300 when Matthew Breetzke’s bustling 24 from 23 balls took the total to 168-2 in the 29th over.

De Kock, meanwhile, reached his century from just 80 balls with a magnificent pulled six against Harshit Rana and it was the Indian bowlers who were enduring all of the pressure. But then the wheels fell off the Proteas innings.

Breetzke was trapped lbw by a Krishna delivery which kept low and Aiden Markram (1), batting at No 5 following his brilliant century at the top of the order in the previous match, drove Krishna straight to Virat Kohli at cover four balls later.

De Kock swung across the line at Krishna (4-66) and was bowled for 106 from 109 balls (8x4, 6x6) which represent a worthy comeback from the fast bowler after opening figures of 2-0-27-0 at the hands of de Kock.

Kuldeep (4-41) engineered the demise of the lower middle order tempting Dewald Brevis (29) and Marco Jansen (17) to swing at craftily flighted deliveries before persuading Corbin Bosch (9) to push a tame return catch straight back to him.

Keshav Maharaj finished on a resilient 20* from 29 balls to take the score past 250 but faces the prospect of bowling with a wet ball during the run chase with the evening dew beginning to settle.

Batsmen Tony de Zorzi and fast bowler Nandre Burger were both unavailable for selection due to hamstring injuries with their places being taken by Ottneil Baartman and Rickelton respectively.

Virat Kohli scored centuries in both of the first two games of this series and his record in seven ODIs at this venue reads: 118, 117, 99, 65, 157*, 0, 31. India will start as favourites.

INDIA: Rohit Sharma, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Tilak Varma, KL Rahul (captain/wkt), Ravindra Jadeja, Harshit Rana, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna

SOUTH AFRICA: Quinton de Kock (wkt), Aiden Markram, Ryan Rickelton, Temba Bavuma (captain), Matthew Breetzke, Dewald Brevis, Marco Jansen, Corbin Bosch, Keshav Maharaj, Lungi Ngidi, Ottneil Baartman.