Sharjah: South Africa win last game of ODI series against Afghanistan

South Africa bounced back from two heavy defeats to beat Afghanistan by seven wickets in the last encounter of their One Day International Series in Sharjah on Sunday.

Aiden Markram’s unbeaten 69 and 26 not out from Tristan Stubbs saw them reach 170 for three wickets off 33 overs in reply to Afghanistan’s modest total of 169.

Afghanistan had skittled South Africa out cheaply to win the first match on Wednesday and then handed the visitors a 177-run thumping on Friday but were unable to replicate their form, even after again winning the toss and electing to bat in the third ODI.

Their innings was dominated again by the powerful hitting of opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz, who scored 105 in Friday’s comprehensive victory which saw Afghanistan go 2-0 up in the three-match series.

This time he fell 11 short of another century, smashing 89 off 94 balls before being snapped up on the boundary by a flying catch by Reeza Hendricks off the bowling of Andile Phehlukwayo.

But for the rest, the Afghanis were undone by poor decision making and a little misfortune as they suffered three runouts.

Rahmat Shah was run out when a ball that was hit back down the wicket by Gurbaz was deflected by the hand of bowler Lungi Ngidi onto the shoulder of the stranded Shah and onto his wicket.

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