SA seal series with de Villiers' whirlwind 176
South Africa 353 for 6 (De Villiers 176, Amla 85, Rubel 4-62) beat Bangladesh 249 (Imrul 68, Mushfiqur 60, Phehlukwayo 4-40, Tahir 3-50) by 104 runs
and ball-by-ball details
South Africa's massive 353 for 6, amplified by a career-best 176 by comeback-man AB de Villiers, proved too much for Bangladesh as they went down by 104 runs to concede the series. The win in Paarl was also made sweeter by Andile Phehlukwayo's four-wicket haul that helped skittle out Bangladesh for 249.
De Villiers added 136 runs for the third wicket with Hashim Amla to drive the innings from 90 for 2. Once Amla was out for 85, de Villiers went berserk, striking six of his seven sixes in 17 deliveries. The six-storm raised hopes of a double ton and South Africa's 400. But that wasn't to be as de Villiers holed out at deep square in the 48th over.
Bangladesh lost openers Tamim Iqbal and Liton Das by the 11th over. Imrul Kayes and Mushfiqur Rahim added 93 runs for the third wicket thereafter, but they hardly threatened South Africa as the required run-rate escalated above eight an over by the 19th. By the 33rd over, it had crossed 10 per over.
Imrul reached his first half-century across formats in 2017, but he couldn't convert, falling to Imran Tahir for 68. Shakib Al Hasan followed in Tahir's next over, while Mushfiqur became Dwaine Pretorius' second victim in the 34th over when he reached out too far to a slower, wide bouncer. He could only slice an easy catch to JP Duminy at cover. From there, the innings was largely in a freefall as Tahir and Phehlukwayo made merry.
Earlier, South Africa started steadily through their openers again. Despite hitting just three boundaries in 17.3 overs, Quinton de Kock and Hashim Amla still added 90. But when Shakib removed de Kock and Faf du Plessis in the space of four deliveries, Bangladesh had an opening. But, they somehow found ways to fluff their lines and concede the advantage.
Mahmudullah missed a run-out opportunity while Nasir Hossain wasn't swift enough in the slips when an edge flew past his left. Both were chances to remove de Villiers early in his innings. He cashed in and brought up his half-century off just 34 balls, and a further 34 to bring up his 25th ODI century. All of his seven sixes came between backward square-leg and midwicket while a majority of his fours came through the covers.
Rubel Hossain, who finished with 4 for 62, prevented further damage after he removed de Villiers; South Africa added just 10 runs in the last 2.2 overs of their innings. Shakib took 2 for 60 from his 10 overs but Mashrafe Mortaza and Taskin Ahmed, expected to do the early running, conceded 12 fours and six sixes collectively.
Bangladesh now have three days to recover from the de Villiers onslaught going into the final ODI of the tour in East London.