DUANNE Oliver struck twice in his second over of the morning with successive deliveries to put the Standard Bank Proteas well on their way to a 107-run victory and a 3-0 series clean sweep in the final Castle Lager Test match that finished at the Bidvest Wanderers Stadium.
Pakistan needed at least one of their remaining three specialist batsmen to score a century to have any chance of pulling off an upset victory but Olivier virtually eliminated that possibility by first dismissing Pakistan’s best batsman, Babar Azam, and then followed with the dismissal of captain Sarfraz Ahmed next ball.
When Vernon Philander dismissed the remaining major batsman, Shafaq Azad (65 off 71 balls, 11 fours), the writing was on the wall and, although there was spirited resistance from Shadab Khan (47 not out, 66 balls, 7 fours), the Proteas wrapped up the innings in the morning session, requiring just one extra over when they claimed the additional half-hour to finish the contest.
The seven remaining wickets fell for the cost of 120 runs.
Quinton de Kock finished with seven dismissals in the match to go along with his second innings century to be named Castle Lager Man of the Match. He also finished the leading runs scorer in the series and the only one to score more than 250 runs.
Olivier won a one-horse race to be named Castle Lager Man of the Series. His 24 wickets were only one shy of the South African record for a three-match series and came at a cost of only 14.62 runs per wicket. He took eleven wickets in the first Test, five in the second and eight in the third. He had one six-wicket haul, two five-wicket hauls and one four-wicket haul.
The Sunfoil Education Trust (SET) benefited to the tune of R684 500 from the number of fours and sixes hit and wickets taken by the two sides in the series with the final tally for the third match being 262 000. The players on both sides scored income for the fund by hitting boundaries (R1 000) and sixes (R2 000) and taking wickets (R2 500).
The focus now switches to the five-match Momentum ODI Series starting at St George’s Park on January 19.
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