Dawid Malan’s unbeaten 99 in a record partnership helped England complete a 3-0 series sweep over the Proteas with a nine-wicket win in the final KFC T20 International in Cape Town on Wednesday.
Dawid Malan (99*) and Jos Butler (67*) produced the highest ever second wicket partnership in men’s T20 internationals, as they made short work of chasing 192 to give England a 3-0 serie win over South Africa at Newlands.
The world’s top-ranked batsman shared in a record partnership T20I partnership of 167 with Jos Buttler (67 off 46 balls, 3 fours, 5 sixes) as the tourists completed the highest-ever chase at Six Gun Grill Newlands – hunting down the 192 target with 14 deliveries to spare.
It was an unfortunate end to the series for the hosts, who themselves did exceptionally well with the bat thanks to Rassie van der Dussen’s career-best 74 off 32 balls (5 fours, 5 sixes) and 52 off 37 balls (5 fours, 3 sixes) by Faf du Plessis, who was making his 50th appearance for South Africa.
The two put on an unbroken 127 for the fourth wicket in 10.3 overs with Van der Dussen’s effort beating his previous highest score of 64 against Sri Lanka at Centurion in 2018/19.
His third career 50 was well supported by a 10th career half-century by Du Plessis as the pair bettered the record fourth wicket stand of 110 for South Africa that had been set by AB de Villiers and Farhaan Behardien against England at Southampton in 2017.
But without the injured Kagiso Rabada, who has subsequently been ruled out of the upcoming one-day series due to injury, the home attack toiled and eventually succumbed to their worst defeat of the series despite amassing their highest total.
