AB de Villiers never disappoints in pink. Photo: Lee Warren/Gallo Images.
Notwithstanding the importance of the fundraising effort, the Pink ODIs have really become all about AB de Villiers.
And he did not disappoint at the Wanderers on Saturday as he steered South Africa to a seven-wicket victory over Sri Lanka.
De Villiers saw South Africa to their target of 164 in just 32 overs and an unassailable 3-0 lead in the series with a beautifully controlled 60 not out off 61 balls.
Considering that the Proteas regularly score over 300 in this annual fixture, chasing just over half of that was obviously not going to require too much effort.
South Africa sedately went about their business against the sometimes slippery fast bowling of the Sri Lankans and their trio of spinners.
Quinton de Kock (8) failed to ride the extra bounce of a good Lahiru Kumara delivery but Hashim Amla (34) will be kicking himself for getting run out when he was well set.
He was beaten by an excellent throw from Lahiru Madushanka after he chanced a second run.
Madushanka will have enjoyed his debut in the field as he also claimed the wicket of Faf du Plessis, cleverly following him with a full ball as the batsman came down the pitch and made room, only to squeeze a catch to backward point.
But if it’s a pink ODI, De Villiers is almost guaranteed to make runs.
Sri Lanka will regret some tactical errors against him at the start of his innings.
Mystery spinner Lakshan Sandakan, in particular, bowled the wrong line, allowing De Villiers to sweep away at the start of his innings.
Allowed to settle in, De Villiers was hardly troubled and cruised to his 49th ODI half-century off just 52 balls.
He ended the match having taken his tally in pink ODIs to 450 runs in five innings at an average of 112.50 and a strike-rate of 156.79.
This one-sided match will probably be remembered more for the bee invasion that delayed play for an hour midway through the Sri Lankan innings.
Bizarrely, a swarm of what beekeeper Pierre Hefer estimated to be about 5000 bees zoned in on the middle of the field and were quite aggressive.
Earlier, Niroshan Dickwella made his second ODI half-century but it was a lone effort.
The opener scored 74 off 80 balls, with seven fours, and was the sixth batsman out when his innings was ended by Dwaine Pretorius, who went on to claim his career-best figures of three for 19 in seven overs.
AB de Villiers had won the toss and chose to field – his decision based more on giving South Africa the best chance to win quickly than entertaining a capacity crowd.
Initially, South Africa were uninspired as the opening partnership gathered 60.
It took the return of Kagiso Rabada for his second spell to break the stand as Tharanga (31) tried to hit a bouncer well outside off stump and could only sky a catch to fine leg.
Andile Phehlukwayo quickly made his presence felt as, three overs later, he had Kusal Mendis (4) brilliantly caught by Hashim Amla, diving low to his left at slip.
He struck again four overs later as Dinesh Chandimal (4) laid into a big booming square drive, but he picked out Chris Morris running in from the deep cover boundary.
Morris, who was the one bowler who put the openers under pressure, but without reward, then claimed a deserved wicket when he nipped a ball away from Dhananjaya de Silva (16), whose drive was edged to Amla at slip.
Asela Gunaratne (2) fell 15 minutes after the resumption, playing an uppercut off Rabada which went straight to third man, and then Pretorius produced his destructive spell of three for eight in four overs.
Quinton de Kock became the fourth South African behind Mark Boucher, Dave Richardson and De Villiers to palm 100 ODI dismissals behind the stumps.
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