And not to be outdone by his older brother, Mark Adair took three wickets in a match-deciding penultimate over and Graham Hume, who was excellent, held his nerve and claimed two more wickets as South Africa fell short of 185-9.
The victory in their last T20 of 2024 levelled the series at 1-1 and gave Ireland a 6/14 record for the year.
“At half-way, we wanted an extra 15-20 runs,” skipper Paul Stirling said. “They squeezed us and we felt under-par but there was less dew out there tonight and we managed to get over the line. Ross was excellent and we are absolutely delighted with the win. It could have gone either way. We’re over the moon with that result and hopefully we carry our form into the ODI series.”
Adair wasn’t slated to open as late as Thursday but when Lorcan Tucker was hit on the helmet during training and ruled out, an opening presented itself and the former rugby union pro roared through it.
After impressing briefly with 18 from 10 balls in Friday’s defeat, he hit the afterburners to blast five fours and strong arm nine maximums as his power-hitting outshone even Stirling.
The pair’s partnership of 137 in 13 overs is Ireland’s best in T20s, obliterating the 95 that Stirling and Kevin O’Brien added – also for the first wicket – against the West Indies in 2020. Stirling and O’Brien are Ireland’s other two T20 centurions.
It was Stirling who went first for 52, with seven fours and a six, but the skipper’s first T20 half-century of the year was more good news for Ireland as he ended a worrying trot of low scores.
From such an excellent platform, Ireland should have soared past 200 but only 58 runs came from the final seven overs as momentum was lost in a succession of cheap dismissals, and a total of 195-6 was competitive but disappointing.
For long periods of their chase South Africa looked to have the measure of their target but left-arm spinner Matthew Humphreys (1-30) bowled tightly and both Hume (3-25) and the younger Adair (4-31) were superb in sealing the win.
While the victory will be celebrated, the performance of Ross Adair has given coach Heinrich Malan a headache, in a series Ireland were openly using to try new faces and combinations. Looking ahead to the next T20 World Cup in 2026, Malan had wanted to try Tucker up top with Stirling but he will surely have to ditch that idea for the forseeable future, and Andrew Balbirnie’s hopes of a quick return have also faded.