Proteas take 3-0 series lead

South Africa have taken an unbeatable 3-0 series lead in the five match series against India after beating the tourists by 80 runs in Port Elizabeth.

Graeme Smith won the toss and elected to bat first and the top order again struggled with Smith and Loots Bosman both being dismissed for ducks to the bowling of Zaheer Khan and Sreesanth.

Jacques Kallis and man of the match Herschelle Gibbs steadied the ship and put on a 69 run partnership before Kallis was caught behind off Kumble for 49 with the score at 75 in the 18th over.

Wickets then continued to fall at regular intervals with AB de Villiers being trapped lbw for 13, Mark Boucher lbw for 29 and the star from the previous match Justin Kemp being dismissed by Sachin Tendulkar for a golden duck.

At 155-6 in the 35th over, the Proteas were in danger of falling short of a decent score, but the ever reliable Shaun Pollock joined Gibbs and together they kept up a good scoring rate and took the score to 216 before Pollock was run-out.

Some late hitting by Gibbs and Andrew Hall took South Africa to a more than respectable 243-8 from their 50 overs.

India in reply were never in the running after falling to 39-4 in the 13th over and could only manage 163 all out with Irfan Pathan top scoring with 47 not out.

The wickets were shared around with Justin Kemp being the pick of the bowlers taking 3-21 while Pollock and Makhaya Ntini took two wickets a piece.

The fifth and final one-dayer is played on Sunday at Centurion. A Twenty20 international and a test series follows.

South Africa 243-8
Herschelle Gibbs 93*, Jacques Kallis 49, Shaun Pollock 37
Anil Kumble 2-42, Virender Sehwag 1-22

South Africa won by 80 runs

India 163
Irfan Pathan 47*, MS Dhoni 26
Justin Kemp 3-21, Shaun Pollock 2-23, Makhaya Ntini 2-34