Hashim Amla (119) helps South Africa to beat Kiwis by 72 runs

Cricket: South Africa crushed New Zealand by 72 runs to win the second one-day international at the Bay Oval and seal victory in the three-match series.

Hashim Amla stroked a beautifully-paced 119 for the tourists in their 282-9, and the Kiwis then slumped to 210 all out and once again they had Luke Ronchi and their No 11 to thank for posting a respectable score.

Ronchi followed up his brilliant 99 in the opener with 79. In the first match on Tuesday he put on 74 with last man Trent Boult to set a new Kiwi tenth-wicket record in a one-day international.

And just three days later Mitchell McClenaghan (34no) helped him break it as they added a defiant 76, though once again it was in vain.

Opener Amla scored his sixteenth ODI century, but could have fallen for five, his outside edge off fit-again Tim Southee flying between keeper Ronchi and first slip.

His partner Quinton de Kock shrugged off a painful blow to the arm from Boult to score 26 as he helped Amla post 56 for the first wicket.

When De Kock fell, Faf du Plessis (67) and man-of-the-match Amla played patiently, punishing the bad balls as they added an untroubled 113.

Du Plessis and JP Duminy fell but Amla reached his century by stroking Southee through the covers But the wheels then came off the Proteas innings in spectacular fashion in the last few overs.

Southee had his belated revenge by bowling Amla, and after an entertaining cameo from AB de Villiers – 37 off 25 – the middle and lower order collapsed in the last few overs from 279-5 to 282-9, with the last three wickets with the score on 282.

In the process McClenaghan, who had a successful spell with Worcestershire this summer, became the third fastest bowler to 50 ODI wickets when he dismissed Vernon Philander.

But the hosts’ comeback with the ball was wasted by the batsmen.

Martin Guptill had a lucky escape early on when his top edge floated gently up in the air on the on-side, but De Villiers collided comically with one of his team-mates as both went for the catch.

Guptill could not cash in – he fell for 11 – and the experiment of opening with Jimmy Neesham again failed, the all-rounder scoring just 10 this time.

The top five all got starts but could not push on past 20, and the dangerous Corey Anderson followed his golden duck in the opener with just one.

Ronchi hit the only six of the Kiwi innings as he went down fighting with McClenaghan, but they could not stop South Africa’s bowlers in the end.

New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum said: “Again the batting let us down. I thought the bowling was OK.

We did OK to restrict them to 280 when they were looking at somewhere around 310 or 320. It was a pretty good effort with the ball but, again, too many soft dismissals and a lack of real craft with the bat.”

Proteas skipper De Villiers added: “When Hashim bats like that it sets up the whole line-up to be aggressive and that’s exactly what we did around him. He paced his innings amazingly well.”