Duanne Olivier once again was too hot to handle for Pakistan as South Africa clinched a 3-0 whitewash of the Test Series at the Wanderers on Monday.
The aggressive Proteas paceman missed out on a hattrick in his second over of Day Four, removing Babar Azam and captain Sarfraz Ahmed to set the hosts on their way to a 107-run win.
Pakistan resumed in the morning on 153/3 in pursuit of 381 to pull one back in the series, but they never got close after Olivier started to find his rhythm.
Vernon Philander dismissed the last major batsman, Shafaq Azad, and the seven remaining wickets fell for the cost of 120 runs.
But the day and the series belonged to Olivier, whose match figures of 8/126 saw him named the man of the series after racking up 24 wickets at 14.62.
The Knights speedster’s haul was one shy of the SA record for a three-match contest.
WORKED HARD: Quinton de Kock at-bat. Photo: MUZI NTOMBELA/BACKPAGEPIX
And he says: “I’m very proud of my performances, but it’s a great team effort. We’ve played extremely well over the past three Tests and I’m just happy to contribute.”
Olivier has been a revelation in the attack over the first half of the summer and his short bowling has been a dangerous attribute to the Proteas pace quartet of Dale Steyn, Kagiso Rabada and Vernon Philander.
Of his role in the team and his performance, he says: “Each bowler bring something different. Vernon has tremendous skill, KG; raw pace and Dale’s record speaks for itself.
“So for me, it’s just to try and bring something different to the team and I got rewarded for that.”
Wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock finished with seven dismissals in the match to go along with his second-innings unbeaten 129 to end as the top runs scorer in the series.
RAW PACE: SA's Kagiso Rabada. Photo: SAMUEL SHIVAMBU/BACKPAGEPIX
De Kock’s ton was only his fourth in his 38-match career and his first since January 2017.
And the big-hitting ODI specialist was delighted to get to the three-figure mark.
He says: “Any Test century means a lot, [but] I worked hard at my game over the last couple of months and to finally get the reward meant a lot.”