Cape Town, January 6:

South Africa completed a come-from-behind series victory when they beat India by five wickets on the fifth day of the third and final Test at Newlands on Saturday.

Captain Graeme Smith and Shaun Pollock set South Africa on the way to their win with aggressive batting early in the day before rain caused a delay of three hours 45 minutes.

Left-arm opening bowler Zaheer Khan struck twice when played resumed, dismissing both Smith and Pollock, but Jacques Kallis and Ashwell Prince crafted a 77-run partnership to consign India to their third series defeat in as many tours of South Africa. Khan had Kallis caught at midwicket with two runs needed to finish with four for 62.

India won the first Test by 123 runs but South Africa hit back with a 174-run win in the second.

The home side were racing towards victory when Smith and Pollock put on 56 before heavy rain started to fall 50 minutes after the start of play. The pair added another 13 runs before Khan dismissed Smith for 55.

Kallis and Prince took 171 balls for their 77-run stand which ended in anti-climax when Kallis top-edged an attempted pull against Khan and the ball looped gently to Dravid at midwicket. The all-rounder was out for 32.

Prince (38 not out) hit the winning run when he pushed the ball past Sachin Tendulkar, who came on to bowl in place of Kumble towards the end.

SCOREBOARD

INDIA — 1st Innings: 414

SOUTH AFRICA — 1st Innings: 373

INDIA — 2nd Innings: 169

SOUTH AFRICA — 2nd Innings (overnight: 55-2)

G Smith c Karthik b Khan 55

S Pollock c Laxman b Khan 37

J Kallis c Dravid b Khan 32

A Prince not out 38

H Gibbs not out 0

Extras: 17 (11b, llb, 5nb)

Total: 211/5

FoW: 1-36, 2-55, 3-127, 4-132, 5-209

India bowling: Khan 21-2-62-4, Sreesanth 13-2-50-0, Kumble 25-4-74-1, Patel 1-0-2-0, Sehwag 1-0-8-0, Tendulkar 3.1-2-3-0