De Kock, who played cautiously initially before changing gears, scored 106 off 89 balls, studded with eight fours and six maximums, but Kuldeep picked his ninth four-wicket haul in ODIs and helped India reel in the rampaging Proteas batters, who at one time were looking on course to take the visitors past the 300-run mark in the third successive ODI. Left-arm wrist spinner Kuldeep claimed 4-41, including Marco Jansen (17) and Dewald Brevis in an eventful 39th over to help India wrap up the tail in a series in which the first two matches produced massive scores.
With the series tied 1-1 after India won the first game by 17 runs and South Africa returned the favour in the second, the third match is the series decider that both teams want to win.
Asked to bat first after the Indian captain won the toss after 20 consecutive losses, South Africa lost Ryan Rickelton (0) in the first over to Arshdeep Singh, but Quinton de Kock struck a superb hundred, and with help from skipper Temba Bavuma (48) and Matthew Breetzke (24), helped the visitors reach a strong position at 168/2.
Together with captain Temba Bavuma, de Kock scored 113 runs for the second wicket partnership and then, with Matthew Breetzke, shared a 54-run stand to reach his century off 80 balls in the 30th over of SA's innings.
De Kock now shares the top spot with de Villiers, who has seven centuries to his name, ahead of West Indies legend Chris Gayle, who has scored six centuries in India. De Kock has amassed 23 ODI hundreds while serving as a designated wicketkeeper. As a designated keeper, he has tied with Kumar Sangakkara, who also hit 23 centuries. Currently, this is the designated keepers' joint-highest total of hundreds.
But Prasidh Krishna, who was taken to cleaners in 0-27 in two overs in his first spell, redeemed himself a bit by trapping Breetzke for a run-a-ball 24 (2x6) to trigger a collapse, as South Africa lost three quick wickets to have half of their side in the dugout for 199 runs.
Prasidh Krishna, in his second spell, continued his fightback by having Aiden Markram, who scored a hundred in the previous match, lob a slower one to Virat Kohli for one, and then got the massive wicket of Quinton de Kock, the South African opener playing all over a fast and full delivery and seeing his middle-stump sent cartwheeling.
Dewald Brevis (29) and Marco Jansen (17) added 35 runs for the sixth wicket, but Kuldeep changed the complexion of the game by getting both batters in the space of three balls to turn things in India's favour. Kuldeep, who bowled with great control and mixed up his deliveries, got Brevis with a wrong'un pitched outside the off-stump, and the South African spooned it up to Rohit Sharma at midwicket. A ball later, Kuldeep had another one as Jansen tried to hit out a well-tossed up delivery with a cross-batted shot, only to be caught by Ravindra Jadeja at deep midwicket.
Keshav Maharaj struck a couple of fours in his unbeaten 20, but Kuldeep added Corbin Bosch (9) and Lungi Ngidi to his victims, and Prasidh Krishna returned for his third spell and bowled Ottneil Baartman (3) to leave India needing 271 runs to win the match and seal a 2-1 series win.
The Indian bowlers initially got the stick but came back strongly in the middle-overs to wrap up the South African innings with two overs to spare.
Brief scores:
South Africa 270 all out in 47.5 overs (Quinton de Kock 106, Temba Bavuma 48, Dewald Brevis 29; Kuldeep Yadav 4-41, Prasidh Krishna 4-66) against India.
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