SA v Eng 5th ODI Review: AB de Villiers ton drives South Africa to a series win

The deciding ODI at the Newlands Stadium, Cape Town was special for AB de Villiers as it marked his 200th ODI appearance. And, the maverick batsman made it more special by hitting a magnificent century to lead his team to the series win against England. It was a remarkable series win for the home side who made a stunning comeback to overturn a 2-0 deficit.

South Africa needed 237 to take the series. But, the English bowlers struck with quick wickets to shift the tempo on England’s side straightway.

However, Hashim Amla and de Villiers then put together an 125 runs stand to strengthen the home sides’ chances of winning the game after losing the top order batsman early. Both batted with  a different approach. de Villiers went with a slightly aggressive touch while Amla preferred to rotate the strike, taking singles and doubles.

Morgan tried relentlessly to get better of the pair but they faced no troubles in playing out the English bowlers. The success finally arrived for England in the 30th over after off-spinner Moeen Ali beat Amla to get him stumped by Buttler. England immediately sensed an opportunity for a comeback in the match after Behardien also went back to the pavilion.

The departure of Behardien saw David Wiese step into the field who began to hammer the bowlers straightaway. De Villiers also accelerated rapidly towards his century. There were no turnaround from this stage as both scored at quick pace. South Africa were still 71 runs away from the win but the de Villiers and Wiese smashed those runs in no time to finish the match with five wickets in hand. AB de Villiers also completed his 24th ODI century en route to guiding Proteas to the victory.

Earlier in the day, Alex Hales continued his red-hot batting form to strike a fluent innings of 112. This happens to his maiden century in ODIs which comes after he was unfortunately dismissed for 99 in the 2nd match. However, apart from the sparkling performance from Hales, there wasn’t any worthy show from the English batsman

England were sent to bat by Proteas skipper AB de Villiers. The conditions and weather looked pleasant; cloudy sky and rainbow welcomed both the English openers Hales and Jason Roy. However, there was a slight rain threat looming over the stadium.

Both started cautiously but Roy couldn’t sustain for long after a Tahir managed to trap the English opener in his first over of the spell.

Last match’s centurion Joe Root looked solid and was batting steadily with Hales. However, Tahir yet again managed to find a breakthrough. Root was also trapped leg before by the leggie. Ben Stokes and Hales then did some damage control, weaving a 70 runs stand between the before Rabada struck a double blow to obstruct the England innings once again. Rabada blew the clean bowled both Stokes and Butler off the last two deliveries of the 28th over.

The lower middle order and the tail-enders also could not provide any support to Hales who was comfortably accumulating runs from the other end to keep the scoreboard moving forward. Ali and Woakes departed in back to back in successive overs. Rashid also could not hang around with Hales. The right-hander was yet again in danger of missing out on his century as it appeared that his teammates were in a hurry to go back to the pavilion.

But, couple of overs later, Hales brought up his century with a super stroke to the fence. The celebration weren’t big as he had a huge task of taking England to a par total which their bowlers can afford to defend.

However, Rabada spoilt his intention after the bowler got him caught at the boundary ropes. The South African acknowledged the wonderful effort and shook hands with him as he was walking off. After his departure, it didn’t take long for the South Africans to wrap up the English innings which eventually folded for a decent total of 236.

Brief Scores

England: 236 in 45 overs (Hales 112; Rabada 3/34)

South Africa: 237/5 in 44.0 overs (de Villiers 114; Topley 3/41)

Man of the Match: AB de Villiers (South Africa)