India defeated South Africa by nine wickets on Saturday to win the three-match series 2-1, with opener Yashasvi Jaiswal scoring his maiden one-day international century.
India, chasing 271 to win, relied on Jaiswal’s undefeated 116 and his opening partnership of 155 with Rohit Sharma, who scored 75, to reach the target with 10.1 overs to spare in Visakhapatnam.
In just his fourth ODI since making his debut earlier this year, the left-handed Jaiswal hit his hundred in 111 balls, jumped with delight, and raised the bat to take in the cheers.
To the delight of the weekend crowd, Virat Kohli, who had hit consecutive hundreds in the previous two games, hit the winning boundary to return unbeaten on 65 from 45 balls.
While Rohit led the run chase to get his 61st ODI half-century, the 23-year-old Jaiswal, who now has tons in all three international formats, battled early on.
After Rahul Dravid, Kohli, and Sachin Tendulkar, Rohit became just the fourth Indian to reach 20,000 international runs during the knock.
Rohit’s 73-ball innings was ended by left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj after he smashed 7 fours and 3 sixes. After reaching his fifty, Jaiswal changed course and struck a series of boundaries to ease into the target.
With six fours and three sixes, in-form Kohli dominated the opposition and finished the series with 302 runs.
Earlier, after opener Quinton de Kock scored a brilliant century, India knocked out South Africa for 270. After losing 20 straight coin flips, India finally won an ODI toss when captain KL Rahul broke the almost unbelievable curse and sent South Africa in to bat.
Wicketkeeper-batter De Kock scored 106 off 89 balls and contributed 113 runs for the second wicket alongside captain Temba Bavuma, who scored 48. South Africa were destined for a significant total, but Kuldeep Yadav returned figures of 4-41 and Prasidh Krishna also took four wickets, as India delivered consistent blows to dismiss the Proteas in 47.5 overs.
Left-handed De Kock scored his fifth ODI century against India with a six off Harshit Rana. He finished his innings with eight fours and six hits over the fence. Before bowling De Kock shortly after the batsman’s hundred, Krishna struck twice in one over, dismissing Aiden Markram for 1 and Matthew Breetzke for 24.
In their 35-run partnership, Dewald Brevis (29) and Marco Jansen (17) tried to rebuild the innings, but Kuldeep dismissed the two in three deliveries to turn the tide in India’s favor once more. Together, Kuldeep and Krishna bowled out the opposition, as Keshav Maharaj stayed undefeated on 20.
This was after Ryan Rickelton was dismissed for a duck by Arshdeep Singh on the fourth ball of the game, but De Kock and Bavuma stabilized the innings before attacking the hosts with many boundaries.
After India’s 0-2 Test series defeat, the ODI victory over South Africa was aided by the presence of Kohli and Rohit, two veterans who only play in the 50-over format following their T20 and Test retirements.
The two teams will now play five Twenty20 matches, beginning on Tuesday in Cuttack.
