Cricket: Proteas avoid whitewash as Amla reaches another milestone
Hashim Amla produced a record-breaking innings at Lord's on Sunday as South Africa thrashed England by seven wickets to avoid a whitewash in the one-day international series.
England had taken the opening two matches to secure the series with one game to play but they were unable to make it 3-0 going into the ICC Champions Trophy as their batting collapsed in spectacular fashion.
Having been reduced to 20-6 the hosts were grateful to Jonny Bairstow, David Willey and debutant Toby Roland-Jones for getting them to 153 all out.
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It was never going to be enough, though, as South Africa gave themselves a boost going into next month's Champions Trophy, and Amla led their charge.
The opener claimed his 33rd ODI half-century and became the fastest man to 7,000 runs in the 50-over game in the process, beating Virat Kohli by an impressive 11 matches.
Amla became Roland-Jones' first international scalp in the 16th over but any thought of a Proteas slump was quickly ended by JP Duminy and AB de Villiers - the pair seeing South Africa home with plenty of time to spare.
England - who were without Ben Stokes due to a knee injury - had scored 669 runs in the previous two matches but hopes of another 300-plus total ebbed away very quickly as Kagiso Rabada (4-39) and Wayne Parnell (3-43) tore through their top order.
Explosive duo Alex Hales (1) and Jos Buttler (4) were dismissed in the fifth over by Rabada, the seamer also taking Adil Rashid's (0) wicket to complete a sensational set of six.
Bairstow (51) and Willey (26) showed some resistance with a 62-run stand for the seventh wicket and Roland-Jones added an unbeaten 37 to lift England into three figures.
Their hopes rested on the shoulders of Bairstow, so when he became Keshav Maharaj's first of three wickets (3-25) their fight was all but over - only another 19 added before Steven Finn (3) was the last man out.
Amla and Quinton De Kock made light work of South Africa's reply with a 95-run partnership either side of lunch - the break taken after 11 overs of the Proteas innings given England only used 32 of their allocation.
A pull through square leg saw Amla reach 7,000 ODI runs and take the record from Kohli, but he was in no mood to stop there as he racked up another half century while England toiled.
There was brief respite for the bowlers as Roland-Jones (1-34) and Jake Ball (2-43) removed Amla (55), De Kock (34) and Faf du Plessis (5) but South Africa cruised to victory with more than 20 overs remaining.
The winning runs came from a beautiful Duminy drive to the cover boundary, taking him to 28, while captain De Villers marked his 100th ODI as captain with an unbeaten 27.