• Source:JND
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India vs South Africa: India's star wicketkeeper-batter Sanju Samson put up a remarkable show with the bat in the third ODI match against South Africa at Boland Park in Paarl on Thursday, December 21.

Samson smashed his maiden ODI century to help India emerge victorious by 78 runs and clinch the series 2-1.

Skipper KL Rahul lauded Samson's performance and went on to say that he is pleased to see the star player's impactful outing against Proteas despite not getting too many chances at the top of the batting order.

 

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Samson came out to bat at No.3 and scored 108 runs in 114 balls on the back of six fours and three sixes to help India post a total of 296/8 in their 50 overs.

"Sanju has been a phenomenal performer in the IPL, unfortunately, hasn't got a lot of chances at the top of the order for various reasons but nice to see him do well today," KL Rahul said in a post-match presentation.

Sanju has been in the talks for a long while now for not being a part of the Indian team in various tournaments and series but got to be a part of the all-important series against South Africa.

He registered a failure in the second match of the series, scoring just 12 runs but redeemed himself in style with his maiden international ton.

The Men in Blue were clinical enough to bowl the hosts out for just 218 runs to clinch the victory in the final match with nearly four overs to spare.

"Always love being around the boys. Nice to get back on the cricket field after a disappointing World Cup. Have played with a lot of them in the IPL, nice to get out here and play with them. Usually, my message is to always enjoy the game, to give your best, and not worry about the rest. They're great cricketers but few of them haven't played internationally so it's about giving them some time to adjust. It's about making their roles clear and they all gave their 100% so nothing more I can ask," Rahul added.

Tony de Zorzi, who scored a century in the last game, once again was the op run-getter for South Africa with 81 runs to his name in 87 balls while captain Aiden Markram played a knock of 36 runs.

For India, Arshdeep Singh was the pick of the bowlers as he ended up bagging 4 wickets for just 30 runs in his nine overs while Washington Sundar returned with a figure of 2-38.

After the visitors' dominating victory in the series opener, the Proteas made a comeback to make it 1-1 with an eight-wicket win in the second match but the Rahul-led side ended up on the right side in the decider.

 

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This is the second time India defeated Proteas at their home in a bilateral series, having last registered a 5-1 series victory in 2018.

With this win, KL Rahul became only the second Indian captain to win an ODI series in South Africa after Virat Kohli (2018).