Cricket
India clinch ODI-series with emphatic win over South Africa─── ILSE SMALBERGER 09:28 Sun, 07 Dec 2025
India beat South Africa by nine wickets in the third and final one-day international on Saturday (6/12) to clinch the series 2-1.
India’s captain, KL Rahul, won the toss and chose to field first. The Proteas lost a wicket in the first over – Ryan Rickelton for a duck – but Quinton de Kock and Temba Bavuma steadied the ship with a 113-run partnership for the second wicket, before Bavuma fell to Ravindra Jadeja, just before reaching his half-century.
Quinton de Kock went on to score a magnificent and valuable century before being bowled for 106 off 89 by Prasidh Krishna.
Mathew Breetzke (24 off 23), Dewald Brevis (29 off 29), Marco Jansen (17 off 15) and Keshav Maharaj (20 not out) were the only other batsmen to reach double figures. South Africa were all out for a fairly modest 270 in the 48th over.
Bowlers
Krishna and Kuldeep Yadav were India’s most successful bowlers, each taking four wickets, with Arshdeep Singh and Ravindra Jadeja picking up one each.
Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rohit Sharma wasted no time and came out swinging for India. They shared a 155-run partnership for the opening wicket, with Jaiswal becoming the sixth Indian batter and youngest to score a century in all three formats of the game.
Sharma scored a magnificent 75 off 73 balls, before Maharaj sent him back to the changing rooms. However, he was replaced by Virat Kohli, who smashed 65 in a 115-run partnership with Jaiswal to seal the victory.
‘Kohli 65 not out’
Jaiswal remained unbeaten on 116 off 121 balls with Kohli 65 not out off 45 balls. After the match, Man of the Series Kohli said he enjoys focusing on the ODI format, having retired from test and T20 cricket.
“Honestly, just playing the way I have in this series has been the most satisfying thing for me. I don’t think I’ve played at this level for a good two to three years now, and I feel really free in my mind and just the whole game is coming together nicely.”
Proteas coach Shukri Conrad also had nothing but praise for the two Indian veterans. “For our young batters to see what the world’s best, Virat and Rohit, can do and how they go about the business, I’d like to think we’ll take that learning with us and then grow from there.”
South Africa’s tour of India will conclude with five T20 internationals with the first one scheduled for Tuesday (9/12) at Cuttack. The match will start at 15:30.
