Thiruvananthapuram: The India A cricket team won the last unofficial ODI of the five-match series against South Africa A by 36 runs on Friday.
In a rain-affected game, the match was curtailed to 20 overs. Chasing a target of 205, India bundled out South Africa at 168.
Proteas suffered an early blow in the third over as the opening batsmen Janneman Malan departed after scoring 16 runs. Shardul Thakur provided the breakthrough for India.
Temba Bavuma came in to bat at number three and built a brief partnership of seven runs with Reeza Hendricks. Bavuma (6) was dismissed cheaply by Ishan Porel in the fourth over.
Kyle Verreynne and Hendricks added 69 runs for the third wicket before the former was sent back to the pavilion by Washington Sundar in the 11th over.
Hendricks and Henry Klassen stitched a 48-run partnership to get past the 100-run mark. Klassen (14) was dismissed by Tushar Deshpande in the 15th over at the team total of 4-143.
Hendricks gave away his wicket to Rahul Chahar after playing a knock of 59 runs.
After Hendricks’ dismissal, South Africa lost wickets in quick succession as the lower order failed to add runs on the scoreboard and the team bundled out for 168.
For India, Shardul Thakur scalped three wickets while Washington Sundar took two wickets.
Earlier, India won the toss and chose to bat. India suffered a bad start as they lost opener Prashant Chopra (2) in the first over. He was caught by Henry Klassen on the delivery of Beuran Hendricks.
Sanju Samson joined Shikhar Dhawan in the middle and built a 135-run partnership for the second wicket. Dhawan lost his wicket to George Linde in the 14th over after playing a knock of 51 runs.
Samson and skipper Shreyas Iyer added 23 runs for the third wicket before the former was sent back to the pavilion by Linde in the 16th over. Samson played a quick-fire knock of 91 runs in 48 balls.
Iyer and Shubman Gill helped their side to go past the 200-run mark. Iyer was scalped by Hendricks in the 20th over. He amassed 36 runs off 19 balls. Gill played a run-a-ball inning of 10 runs. India posted a total of 204/4 in 20 overs.
India won the five-match ODI series by 4-1 and will face South Africa A in the first unofficial Test match here from September 9.