Ire vs SA: Captain's 100 powers Ireland to first ever ODI win over South Africa

Ire vs SA: A century from captain Andrew Balbirnie and tremendous effort by the bowlers led to Ireland winning their first match against South Africa. This has now given them a 1-0 lead in the series with a match to go.

After setting a target of 291, Ireland bowled the visitors out for 247 to register their first ODI win over South Africa.

Sent out to bat, Ireland’s opening pair of Paul Stirling and Balbrinie continued their solid form. They had put on a 64-run stand before Stirling was knocked over by Keshav Maharaj (1/50) for 27. Balbirnie was then joined by Andy McBrine in the middle and had a 60 run partnership before Tabraiz Shamsi (1/42) trapped the latter in front for 30 in the 29th over.

Ireland continued their impressive batting with captain Balbirnie leading the way, and hitting his seventh career ODI ton. The opener hit 10 fours and two sixes on his way to 102 from 117 balls, before mistiming Kagiso Rabada (1/58) straight to Temba Bevuma at mid-off. 

The fall of Balbirnie ended yet another fifty-plus partnership – 70 off 79 deliveries – for Ireland between him and Harry Tector.

With a more than solid platform of 194/3 in the 42nd over, Ireland started hitting those big runs in the final 8 overs. Tector partnered up with George Dockrell and the duo really troubled the SA bowlers. The pair combined for 90 runs in a mere 46 deliveries. Tector played an aggressive hand of 79 off 68 balls while Dockrell’s quick-fire cameo of a 23-ball 45took Ireland to a total of 290/5 in their 50 overs.

In response, South Africa was facing pressure from the start, losing Aiden Markram (5) to Craig Young (1/34) in the fifth over. He was soon followed back to the pavilion by Temba Bavuma (10) in 11th over to Josh Little (2/45).

A 108-run partnership between Janneman Malan and Rassie van der Dussen put South Africa on track, taking them to 159/2  by the 33rd over but Malan’s fall for 84 to Dockrell (1/37) took the match to Ireland’s way.

From there, it was always going to be too tough a task for South Africa to get into the match and so it proved. 

The two teams next meet on Thursday in the third and final ODI.