AB de Villiers scored an unbeaten 95 off 11 balls
Skipper AB de Villiers’ unbeaten 95 helped South Africa to clinch one-day international series against Pakistan with a six-wicket win in the fifth and final game in Benoni on Sunday.
Capitalizing the lifeline after being put down on one by Younis Khan, AB de Villiers overpowered some aggressive bowling and an impulsive strip of Willowmoore Park to register his third half-century in the series beside a century as South Africa overhauled the 204-run target with 36 balls to spare.
AB de Villiers, whose 111-ball vigil was laced with nine boundaries, stitched up 87 runs with Farhaan Behardien (35) to put South Africa’s chase on track after Pakistan quicks delivered some hostile spells.
Losing Quinton de Kock (3), who replaced injured Graeme Smith, Colin Ingram (2) cheaply, the Proteas were reeling at 34-2 in 11 overs.
Opener Hashim Amla failed to get momentum early from the innings and struggled against both pace and spin. He shared 49 runs for third wicket before eventually being undone by pacer Mohammad Irfan.
On this occasion, AB de Villiers got an able ally in Behardien and started rebuilding the innings sagaciously in his association.
Concentrating largely on the rotation of strike and propelling the loose deliveries past rope, the pair drove up the total to 170-4 before former fell to Irfan.
The skipper, however, continued to pile up runs in the company of David Miller (20) and took his side past target with an unbeaten 35-run stand.
AB de Villiers scored 367 runs in the series at an average of 91.75. He was named man of the match and man of the series.
Earlier, elected to bat Pakistan lost openers Mohammad Hafeez (5) and Imran Farhat (13) cheaply before Kamran Akmal (48) and Younis Khan (29) steadied the innings with a 66-run third-wicket stand.
Robin Peterson gave South Africa the much-crucial breakthrough by dismissing Kamran in 25th over, and the tourists were pegged further back when Behardien scalped Younis an over later.
Skipper Misbah-ul-Haq (24) shared 47-run fifth-wicket stand with Shoaib Malik (28) to resurrect Pakistan’s hopes to manage a competitive total but Ryan McLaren took three wickets in 13 balls to swing the match in hosts’ favour.
McLaren finished with 3-32 while Dale Steyn and Morne Morkal claimed one wicket apiece.
