AB de Villiers and his ruthless bowlers whack New Zealand

It turns out losing now and then isn’t a bad thing.

The Proteas on Saturday quickly recovered from a narrow loss earlier in the week as they thrashed New Zealand by 159 runs in the third ODI in Wellington.

They lead the five-match series 2-1.

Neil McKenzie, South Africa’s batting coach, had said the side were still aiming to deliver a complete performance and this came pretty close.

Despite a mid-innings wobble, the Proteas’ varied bowling attack was absolutely outstanding in ripping the home side’s batting to shreds.

Dwaine Pretorius, who is rapidly trying to make himself look indispensable, took 3/5 in 5.4 overs as the Black Caps were shot out for 112 but it was definitely a team effort.

Kagiso Rabada (2/39), back after being rested with a knee niggle, worked up good pace and combined well with a disciplined Wayne Parnell (2/33) as the new ball pair.

Yet it was the all-rounders Pretorius and Andile Phehlukwayo (2/12) that struck the killer blows.

Phehlukwayo kept it tight to New Zealand captain Kane Williamson (23) and forced the out-of-sorts stroke-maker to chop a cut unto his stumps.

Four balls later, Pretorius’ line trapped Ross Taylor (18) – South Africa’s destroyer in Christchurch – in front.

Thereafter, it was all one-way traffic as the Proteas exploited favourable conditions under the lights and fully justified AB de Villiers’ decision to bat first.

In fact, South Africa’s skipper had a fabulous game.

Since his return to international cricket, De Villiers hadn’t quite convinced yet with his batting form.

Yet when he delivered at a crucial juncture.

Quinton de Kock (68) and Faf du Plessis (36) gave South Africa a fine start but the middle-order struggled again as five wickets were lost for 66 runs.

The moment of crisis brought out the best in De Villiers, who crafted a brilliant 85 off 80 balls and became the fastest player to reach 9000 ODI runs – 205 innings.

He received excellent support from Parnell.

The mercurial bowling all-rounder showed sound judgement in his knock of 35 off 32 as the pair added 84 runs in 10.4 overs for the 7th wicket.

It proved vital.

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