Fifties by Morne van Wyk and AB de Villiers laid the foundation for South Africa to post 283-7 in their 50 overs in the final ODI against New Zealand in Durban on Wednesday.
Van Wyk (58) and Hashim Amla (44) got their team off to the best possible start as they shared a 89-run opening partnership.
South Africa had their fair share of good fortune during the innings as the trend of poor fielding that marked the first two games continued. The Black Caps dropped four catches, including Van Wyk, facing 100 balls for his 58, who was dropped twice.
Rilee Rossouw didn’t last long, caught at slip, but De Villiers (64) came good with the bat for the first time in this series and in the process became the fastest to 8 000 ODI runs. He took just 182 innings and is now third overall from a South African point of view with only Jacques Kallis and Herschelle Gibbs above him with more runs.
De Villiers shared a 86-run partnership with David Miller (36) who was good value for his runs before he was caught behind off the bowling of Adam Milne.
Farhaan Behardien anchored the tail-end with a valuable 40 before he was out off the last ball of the innings trying to clear the boundary.
