He made an unbeaten 112 off 81 balls and Lizaad Williams picked up three wickets as South Africa won by 174 runs
Tristan Stubbs remained unbeaten on 112 off 81 balls, his maiden ODI century • Cricket Ireland
South Africa 343 for 4 (Stubbs 112*, Verreynne 67, Mulder 43) beat Ireland 169 (Young 29, Williams 3-36, Fortuin 2-36, Ngidi 2-38) by 174 runs
Tristan Stubbs‘ maiden ODI century set South Africa up for a 174-run win that gave them an unassailable 2-0 series lead against Ireland. Stubbs followed up his maiden ODI fifty in the last game with an unbeaten 81-ball 112 that powered South Africa to 343 for 4 after they won the toss in Abu Dhabi. Lizaad Williams then picked up three wickets, all with the new ball, effectively shutting Ireland out of the contest within the first 10 overs of their chase.
Ireland slid to 117 for 9 and it took the third-highest 10th-wicket stand in Ireland’s history, between Graham Hume and Craig Young, to take them to 169.
Stubbs came in to bat in the 24th over with South Africa 136 for 2, although he was effectively batting at No. 5 with Temba Bavuma having retired hurt after injuring his left elbow.
Stubbs started briskly and his partner Kyle Verreynne picked up the pace after he had been part of a 58-run stand with Rassie van der Dussen.
Verreynne, drafted into the XI for the injured Tony de Zorzi, took on anything short, as he pulled Gavin Hoey for four before playing a short-arm jab through midwicket off Mark Adair.
Two balls later, Stubbs also pulled Adair for his first boundary.
Then, in the 32nd over, Verreynne again pulled Adair for four to bring up his half-century as well as the fifty-run stand.
As Ireland looked at different options for a breakthrough, Stubbs punched Hume through cover before playing a back-foot punch over cover for six off a Hoey half-tracker.
The duo put away a couple more short balls before Verreynne danced down the track to McBrine only to miss the ball and be stumped.
There was a period of 28 balls without a boundary that followed, before Stubbs scooped Hume in the 43rd over to get to 70.
Wiaan Mulder put a couple of short balls away in the next two overs Hume conceded 18 in the 46th, with Stubbs accounting for 17 of them. He hit him over midwicket for two sixes, with a flicked four sandwiched in between.
Stubbs got an outside edge for four in the 48th to take him to 99 before a single brought up the century. He hit two more boundaries either side of Mulder clearing long-on and then picking out the fielder there to fall for 43.
Adair gave away just five runs in the 50th over, but South Africa already seemed to have more than enough runs in the tank.
This was only the third time in men’s ODIs that the top six of a team had each made 35 or more.
Williams, fresh off a four-for in the first ODI, gave South Africa their first breakthrough in the second over, as Andy Balbirnie got an inside edge that deflected onto the stumps off his pads.
Paul Stirling started the next over by creaming Lungi Ngidi through cover before the fast bowler got a length ball to jag in sharply from outside off to crash into leg stump.
Harry Tector and Curtis Campher rebuilt with a run-a-ball stand of 37, before Williams struck twice in two balls, getting Campher to edge behind before trapping Stephen Doheny in front. Doheny reviewed only for ball-tracking to show the ball clipping leg stump for umpire’s call.
Ottneil Baartman then invited Tector to drive away from his body and induced an edge that Rickelton gobbled up. Ireland had lost half their side inside the 10th over, with only 50 runs on the board.
George Dockrell then chipped Andile Phehlukwayo to mid-on in the 13th over as Ireland slipped towards another thrashing. Adair hit two fours and a six before he holed out trying to clear the ropes again to give Mulder his first wicket. Andy McBrine and Gavin Hoey stuck around, with the young legspinner hitting Mulder over cover for six to take Ireland past 100 in the 22nd over.
They picked up a boundary each off Bjorn Fortuin before McBrine missed a reverse-sweep off the spinner to be trapped lbw.
Hoey got a top edge for another four before holing out to deep midwicket off Ngidi next ball.
Hume and Young then put on 52 to delay the inevitable, with Hume hitting two sixes and Young grabbing three fours and a six before Fortuin wrapped up the win for South Africa.
South Africa started steady after winning the toss, with Ryan Rickelton carrying on from where he left off in the first ODI and Bavuma looking sharp after getting out cheaply in that game.
Bavuma shuffled down the crease to flick Hume through midwicket in the fourth over for South Africa’s first boundary, and Rickelton then flicked Adair over midwicket for two boundaries in the next over.
Bavuma then slapped Craig Young in front of point before coming down the track to Adair to lift him over mid-off.
The two cashed in on the final over of the powerplay, with Rickelton hitting Young over long-off for six before Bavuma flicked him over midwicket for another.
Bavuma then got injured in the 12th over as he dived to complete a single. He received treatment on his left elbow and resumed at the non-striker’s end, but retired hurt two balls later, ending the opening stand at 68.
Rickelton slapped Campher through the off side for another boundary before offering Campher a return catch to fall ten runs short of what would have been back-to-back half-centuries.
Van der Dussen and Verreynne then took over, as they both picked up boundaries off Campher. Verreynne survived a stumping chance on 11, with Doheny slow to take the bails off as McBrine sent one down the leg side.
The two brought up their half-century stand before Hoey got van der Dussen to inside-edge a wrong’un onto the stumps off his foot for his maiden ODI wicket.
Abhimanyu Bose is a sub-editor with ESPNcricinfo
