Johannesburg (Agencies): Aiden Markram scored his ODI century and went on to rack up the joint sixth-highest individual score by a South African, as the hosts notched up their third-highest score at the Wanderers to win the series 2-nil.
Markram and David Miller thrilled a 10,000-strong crowd with a fifth-wicket stand of 199 in 118 balls, at more than 10 runs an over, in the last international of a summer that has seen cricket surge back to life in the country.
Fittingly, it ended on a festive note as the hosts donned their pink kit to raise awareness for breast cancer, did their bit to ensure automatic qualification for this year’s World Cup and brought back memories of the 2015 edition of this match, when they scored 439. Then, Hashim Amla, Rilee Rossouw and AB de Villiers scored centuries while David Miller did not face a ball and was on 0* when the innings ended.
This time Miller played a key role, first as a supporting act to Markram and then with an aggressive knock of his own, which ended nine short of a sixth ODI hundred. He and Markram shared South Africa’s second-highest stand for the fifth wicket to ensure South Africa set Netherlands a towering total.
They acquitted themselves well in reply and reached their second-highest total against South Africa. An 85-run second-wicket stand between Max O’Dowd and Musa Ahmed, and Musa’s half-century allowed Netherlands to take the game deep but they were never up with the required run-rate and it ballooned as they continued batting. Markram capped off a good day with 2 for 40 and Sisanda Magala signed off from a finer summer with a career-best five for 43. Magala’s last three wickets came in an exceptional display of death bowling to ensure South Africa won with 10.5 overs to spare.
South Africa closed out their World Cup Super League campaign with a series win over Netherlands which, as things stand, puts them in eighth place on the table, in the automatic qualification zone for this year’s fifty-over World Cup. They will only stay there if Ireland fail to whitewash Bangladesh 3-nil in May and, given that permutation, will fancy their chances of avoiding a trip to Zimbabwe for the qualifying tournament in June.
South Africa were in early trouble after Temba Bavuma chipped Vivian Kingma to square leg and Quinton de Kock, who never found fluency, flashed at one at was caught at slip. South Africa were 32 for 2 in the eighth over but Markram didn’t bat like there was too much trouble. He dominated a 62-run third-wicket stand with Rassie van der Dussen, who sent an Aryan Dutt half-tracker, to short fine and then combined well with Heinrich Klaasen to put on 51 for the fourth-wicket.
Heinrich Klaasen contributed a quick fire 28 runs off 21 balls before trying to pull a Shariz ball that wasn’t short enough and Scott Edwards ran towards gully to take a swirling catch. That brought David Miller to the crease in the 26th over with South Africa on 145 for 4 and the fireworks began.
Miller dropped on 16 when Max O’Dowd spilled the chance at extra cover and settled into a supporting role to Markram, who moved through the gears quickly. He got into the 90s with a pull over mid-wicket and then drilled Dutt through extra cover to reach his century off 86 balls, in the 33rd over. Hallmark of Markram’s hundred was how well he hit the ball through the offside and the timing of his shots on a surface where others were not quite getting it right enough. He also picked his moment to accelerate, perfectly.
When Dutt brought back in the 39th over, Markram hit his second ball over extra cover to the short boundary for six and then struck successive fours to bring up the hundred partnership. Miller slog swept the last ball for four to end a 20-run over. South Africa were 262 after 40 overs and plundered 52 runs off the next three overs, to take Markram past 150 and put Miller into the 80s. When Dutt returned, Markram got stuck in again and took 19 runs off an over that cost 21 and seemed set to become South Africa’s first ODI double-centurion.
