Stirling and Tector fifties, Hume and Young three-fors help Ireland beat South Africa

South Africa faced a defeat against Ireland in One Day Internationals for just the second time, despite Jason Smith's impressive effort of 91 runs going to waste.

Harry Tector scored 60 runs from 48 deliveries - Cricket Ireland.

Ireland scored 284 runs for 9 wickets, with Stirling contributing 88 and Tector adding 60. Williams took 4 wickets for 56 runs. They defeated South Africa, who managed 215 runs, with Smith scoring 91. Hume took 3 wickets for 29 runs and Young claimed 3 for 40. Ireland won the match by 69 runs.

Captain Paul Stirling and Harry Tector both scored impressive half-centuries, while the team delivered a strong bowling performance, leading to Ireland's victory in the third ODI against South Africa. This marked only Ireland's second win against South Africa in this format of the game.

After winning the toss for the first time in the series, Ireland delivered their strongest batting performance yet, while their bowlers took advantage of the favorable conditions created by the lights.

In his second ODI appearance, Jason Smith fought hard to score 91 runs. However, his efforts were for nothing because Ireland managed to dismiss South Africa's top five batsmen in just 20 overs.

In the previous two One Day Internationals, Ireland struggled with batting under the lights and experienced some major collapses. However, on Monday, South Africa discovered how challenging it can be to bat second in Abu Dhabi.

The new ball was swinging significantly more in the evening conditions than it had in the last two matches (the broadcast indicated an average swing of 2.1 degrees on Monday, compared to just 1.1 in the previous games). Taking advantage of this, Ireland's fast bowlers quickly made their mark after their batsmen posted a solid score. Mark Adair dismissed Ryan Rickelton with an edge to the slip fielders in the very first over, and just three overs later, he got Rassie van der Dussen out LBW.

Reeza Hendricks was brought in from South Africa to replace the injured Temba Bavuma but faced disappointment, lasting only seven balls before he edged a delivery from Graham Hume into the hands of Andy Balbirnie at second slip.

Kyle Verreynne responded aggressively with six fours but was out leg before wicket for 38 when he failed to connect with a flick shot after moving across the stumps, thanks to a delivery from Craig Young. Smith and Tristan Stubbs attempted to stabilize the innings, but Young got the latter out caught behind with a simple length delivery in the 20th over.

Smith and Andile Phehlukwayo formed another partnership, but Phehlukwayo mishit a pull shot that went to fine leg, allowing Fionn Hand to claim his first wicket in ODIs on his debut.

Smith then took control of the runs, confidently hitting to the off side, but he kept losing teammates at the other end. Bjorn Fortuin stayed in the game for a while before being bowled out by left-arm spinner Matthew Humphreys. Young then got Williams to edge a short ball, which was caught by the wicketkeeper.

Smith also hit Young and Adair for a few sixes over the leg side after recording his first international half-century. In the 43rd over, he reached the eighties with a strong flick to the area wide of long-on off Adair, then followed that with another boundary through midwicket. He capped off that over by smashing the pace bowler over wide long-on, quickly advancing into the nineties.

However, Adair came out on top when he dismissed Smith at deep point, bringing his innings to a close after the batter had sliced a wide yorker from Hume. Smith struck nine fours and four sixes in his 93-ball innings, which was a strong comeback after failing to score on his ODI debut. Hume secured the victory by getting Lungi Ngidi to edge a catch behind with 23 balls remaining.

Ireland set the foundation for their total thanks to a century-long partnership between Stirling and Andy Balbirnie, marking their first 100-plus collaboration in One Day Internationals. Taking advantage of favorable conditions on a newly prepared pitch, Stirling opened the innings with a strong cover drive against Ngidi in the very first over. A few edges either found the gaps or fell short of the fielders as Ireland’s opening pair successfully navigated the powerplay.

Stirling faced off against South Africa's top bowler in the series, Lizaad Williams, impressively hitting him for six. Balbirnie took a bit longer to find his rhythm and patiently worked his way in. However, by the 13th over, he really began to shine, elegantly sending a shot through midwicket for four runs. In Ngidi's next over, Balbirnie struck again, launching a six before scoring a few more boundaries off Fortuin.

After a few uneventful overs, Stirling reached his fifty, but Balbirnie was dismissed after misplaying a pull shot off Williams and getting caught. The partnership of 101 runs between Stirling and Balbirnie became Ireland's second-best in One Day Internationals against South Africa.

Stirling quickly sought to regain the momentum against South Africa, launching a drive through cover that sent Williams to the boundary, followed by another shot that found the area near long-on. Curtis Campher got off to a fast start, collecting a couple of boundaries in one over from Williams before smashing Fortuin for six over wide long-on. The partnership between Stirling and Campher grew to 58 runs for the second wicket, but it ended when Campher attempted a paddle shot off Baartman, leading to the ball striking the stumps.

Stirling hit a towering six off Ngidi, sending the ball over long-off, and soon followed that up with a boundary against Baartman behind point. However, he was ultimately outdone by an in-swinging delivery for the second consecutive match, ending his innings just 12 runs shy of a hundred.

Lorcan Tucker, who has returned from injury and rejoined the team, was instrumental in keeping the momentum going alongside Harry Tector, consistently hitting boundaries as they contributed 54 runs to Ireland's total. Their partnership came to an end when Tucker attempted to play a scoop shot off Phehlukwayo, but he ended up sending the ball high into the air, allowing Ryan Rickelton to make a fine catch while sprinting backward.

Phehlukwayo made an impact once more in his following over when George Dockrell hit a shot that went directly to the fielder at point.

In the 48th over, Tector hit Ngidi over the long-on boundary and then sliced a shot past point for four runs, bringing him to fifty runs. Williams, who hadn’t been at his best in the series up to this moment, finally made an impact in the second to last over. He uprooted the middle stump when Adair attempted a scoop shot across the stumps. On the next delivery, he bowled Hand out LBW and then clean-bowled Hume with the final ball, ending the series with a total of 11 wickets.

Tector ended his innings with a score of 60 from 48 deliveries but got run out in the last over while attempting to take a second run to maintain his turn at bat.

Abhimanyu Bose works as a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo.