#1 3/26 vs England at East London, 1996
It was the 6th ODI of England’s Tour of South Africa and the Proteas were confirmed of a series win, having already taken a 4-1 lead. South Africa captain Hansie Cronje won the toss and decided to bat first. However, it did not turn out to be a good decision as South Africa were struggling with the England bowlers piling too much pressure on them by taking wickets at regular intervals.
A 30-run stand for the ninth wicket between Brian McMillan and Fanie de Villiers helped South Africa cross 100 and they eventually ended their innings on 129. England had a poor start to their run chase as Fanie de Villiers and Shaun Pollock picked up a couple of early wickets to keep England at 19/3. However, a 56-run partnership between Graeme Hick and wicket-keeper Jack Russell put England back on track.
At this point, Paul Adams who was playing only his second ODI was introduced. He took the key wicket of Graeme Hick and followed that by taking another crucial wicket, that of Graham Thorpe. He took his third wicket of the match by bowling out Dominic Cork and England were tottering at 88/7 before being dismissed for 115 and South Africa took the match by 14 runs. Adams was awarded the Man of the Match for his career-best ODI figures of 3/26 which helped South Africa defend a paltry total of 129.
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