South Africa captain AB de Villiers scored a magnificent unbeaten ton to guide his side to a seven-wicket victory over Australia in the second game of an ODI triangular series on Wednesday.
De Villiers overcame fatigue and severe cramp in his left leg to hit 136 not out as South Africa chased down a target of 328 with 20 balls to spare. The skipper was brilliantly supported by Faf du Plessis, who scored his maiden one-day ton as he contributed 106 in a 206-run partnership for the third wicket.
South Africa's task seemed formidable when they lost openers Hashim Amla and Quinton de Kock with just 54 runs on the board, but De Villiers and Du Plessis made it look easy, Sport24 reported.
As the pitch flattened out under the afternoon sun, the pair dispatched Australia's pace-heavy attack to all corners as they scored at more than seven runs per over.
Although Du Plessis fell to Mitchell Starc shortly after reaching his landmark, by that stage South Africa required less than a run a ball and JP Duminy stroked an unbeaten 33 to aid the limping De Villiers.
While Australia were left to regret the two chances that they gave to De Villiers, he was put down on 78 and 85, their decision to leave out specialist spinner Nathan Lyon also looked ill-advised.
De Villiers said that they were all quite surprised by that. He added that on the other hand, on a wicket that has a bit of moisture in it, if Australia only played six batters then South Africa could run through them so that is probably the way they looked at it, as they wanted to make sure that they had enough batting.
The skipper said that looking back now; Australia probably would have played Lyon.
Imran Tahir was certainly able to hold up the Australian innings with his legspin, breaking a 92-run opening stand when he dismissed Phillip Hughes for 51 and following it up with the wicket of Mitchell Marsh.
Tahir finished with figures of 2 for 45 from his 10 overs despite a robust century from opener Aaron Finch, whose 102 helped Australia to a total of 327 for seven.
Finch's third one-day hundred of the year was well supported by Hughes and stand-in captain George Bailey, who continued to lead the Australians in the absence of the injured Michael Clarke and made 66.
However, once Ryan McLaren broke the 114-run partnership between Finch and Bailey, Australia struggled to fully cash in on their strong start.
Morne Morkel dismissed both Bailey and Glenn Maxwell, which limited the damage done in the last 10 overs to cameos from Steve Smith and Mitchell Johnson.
Bailey said that he certainly thinks 327 could have been enough, but knowing that it's a pretty good wicket and only having four fielders out and two new balls, it's always going to be a challenge.
The stand-in skipper said that one has got to keep trying to find a way to take wickets, and unfortunately the Australian squad couldn't do that.
