South Africa finally slayed the dragon and bounced back from two heavy defeats to beat Afghanistan by seven wickets in the third and final match of the 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. It was Markram’s first ODI fifty in 10 innings and only the fourth time that Stubbs batted in an ODI.

Afghanistan won the toss and elected to bat, but the batters couldn’t establish significant partnerships and could only manage to clobber 169 runs together. Rahmanullah Gurbaz made the only meaningful contribution with the bat and his 89 fell just 11 short of a second successive ODI century. AM Ghazanfar at number 9 was the only other batsman, who contributed runs – scoring 31 not out from 15 balls.

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The series ends 2-1 to Afghanistan, but we leave the UAE with a win.#WozaNawe #BePartOfIt#SAvAFG pic.twitter.com/JH3xYiB5k6

— Proteas Men (@ProteasMenCSA) September 22, 2024

Lungi Ngidi, Nqaba Peter and Andile Phehlukwayo all took two wickets and Bjorn Fortuin one, but Afghanistan also suffered three run-outs, which didn’t help their cause.

South Africa were always on course to reach the target even after losing their opening three batsmen for 80 runs.  Tony de Zorzi (26), Temba Bavuma (22) and Reeza Hendricks (18) all reached double figures, but it was the 90-run fourth-wicket stand between Markram and Stubbs that saw South Africa home.

South Africa will next face Ireland in a T20 match on Friday in Abu Dhabi.

OFM Sport/Ilse Smalberger cg