Cape Town: One of the world’s dangerous batsmen, South African skipper AB De Villiers scored a splendid century to get rid of the visiting England side which also helped his side to clinch the ODI series 3-2 with a comprehensive win on Sunday.
The Proteas registered a superb 5-wicket win over Eoin Morgan-led England in the fifth ODI here at Newlands.
chasing a descent 237-run target, the hosts eased past the target in 44 overs. After 2-0 down in the series, the hosts came out strong and won the next three games on trot to seal the five-match one day series.
Despite a struggling score of 22/3 in the eighth over, South Africa managed to chased down the target. De Villiers and opener Hashim Amla played sensibly after three early blows and added a crucial 125 runs for the fourth wicket.
Amla was dismissed for 59 as the hosts came down to 147/4 in the 30th over. After Amla’s exit, Farhaan Behardien also followed him to the pavilion.
But it was De Villiers who frustrated the English bowlers and completed the 24th ODI century of his career with a single. All-rounder David Wiese also played a valuable 41-run knock and accompanied his skipper in chasing down the target. Both of them added 71 runs for the unbeaten sixth wicket.
De Villiers scored a match-winning 101 runs off just 92 deliveries, including 11 boundaries and a maximum.
He was judged the Player of the match.
Previously, the hosts opted to bowl first after winning the toss.
Opener Alex Hales was the only man who had performed through out the series and yet again he played another magnificent knock of 112. He faced 128 deliveries before getting out as the ninth wicket.
He had played superbly in a situation where he had stood tall and in the other end, wickets were falling constantly.
He was also judged the Player of the series as he scored a total of 383 runs in five games with an average of 76.60, including a hundred and four fifties in first four games.
Kagiso Rabada, Imran Tahir and Wiese bagged three wickets each while Kyle Abbott picked the only wicket of Moeen Ali.
