Top 5 series deciders in one-day cricket

5. Pakistan vs South Africa, 5th ODI at Lahore, 29th October 2007

South Africa had a successful start against Pakistan by winning the Test series early on. The action moved to the five-match one-day series. South Africa took off from where they left by making a scintillating start to the one-day series by winning the first match by 45 runs.

Pakistan clawed their way back to win the next two one-dayers. After South Africa had clinched the fourth one-dayer, the last was set for a slugfest.

South Africa, in the last one-day, batting first had put on a mediocre score of 233. Shoaib Akhtar was the star bowler for Pakistan with three wickets. A hard fought innings of 86 by Jacques Kallis, a half-century from Gibbs and an invaluable contribution from Duminy gave the South African team something to bowl at.

After early losses, Younis Khan and Mohammad Yousuf stitched a partnership of 107 which brought Pakistan right back in the game. At the end of 30th over, Pakistan hit the self-destruct button and handed over the momentum to South Africa. Younis Khan fell to Shaun Pollock and Mohammad Yousuf fell to JP Duminy after four overs.

Shoaib, Misbah Ul-Haq and Shahid Afridi threw their wickets away when it was needed for them to just hang in there for a while and build a stable partnership. The rest of the batsmen fell in a space of three overs and Pakistan got bowled out for 219 and South Africa won the series by a 3-2 scoreline.