Staff Reporter.
South Africa earned their first T20I victory under new white-ball captain Temba Bavuma and successfully defended a score under 170 for just the third time since the 2016 World T20 to level the five-match series against West Indies 1-1.
While Kagiso Rabada took wickets at the start and end of the innings, South Africa had their spinners George Linde and Tabraiz Shamsi to thank for the win. Between them, Linde and Shamsi bowled eight overs, conceded 35 runs and took three wickets to take West Indies from 62 for 2 in the ninth over to 70 for 5 in the 11th, in pursuit of 167.
Despite late cameos from Jason Holder and Fabian Allen, the required rate proved too high. Both teams will be concerned with the performances of their middle orders, who failed to build on promising starts. No South African batter outside the top three scored more than 11 while West Indies’ No. 3-6 batters were all dismissed in single figures.
Positive in the powerplay
With as many as five potential opening batters in their squad, South Africa have several combinations to choose from but stuck with Reeza Hendricks and Quinton de Kock for the second successive match. After putting on 33 in 3.4 overs on Saturday, the pair came good with 73 in 6.4 overs in this match. They scored 69 runs in the Powerplay including seven fours and three sixes and were aggressive against the opening spin pair and the seamers that followed.
De Kock took 14 runs off Holder’s opening over, including the first six of the innings as he cleared midwicket. At the other end, Hendricks plundered 14 off Allen, and hit him back over his head for six before hitting two fours off the next three balls and then being gifted four leg-byes. South Africa have only scored more runs in a Powerplay three times – 88 for 0 and 83 for 0 against England in 2016, and 78 for 0 against Zimbabwe in 2010. In the end, it set them up for a match-winning total.
Ultra-Edge fails…
Hendricks was well-set to score the sixth fifty of his T20I career but two balls after the halfway mark was beaten as he attempted a reverse-sweep off Kevin Sinclair. He was given out on-field and reviewed after consultation with his captain, Bavuma. A cutaway of the players was shown but Ultra-Edge was not available and the television umpire, Joel Wilson, eventually had to make his call based on the split-screen. There was a clear gap between bat and ball and ball-tracking upheld the on-field call, with the ball clipping off stump, so had to go. South Africa were 96 for 2, with 200 still well within sight.
And when David Miller – promoted to No 4 – holed out in the outfield, the South Africans were feeling the pressure.
Proteas duly lost three wickets for 13 runs as Rassie van der Dussen (2), Bavuma (46 in 33 balls) and George Linde all fell to full deliveries from Andre Russell, Jason Holder and Obed McCoy respectively.
McCoy finished up as the most successful bowler for the West Indies, taking 3-25 and conceding only three runs off the final over.
Summing up, Proteas’ skipper Bavuma praised the contribution of the spinners and said: “The guys knew they had to be brave and execute our plans and I think we did that. From a batting point of view we started well but we still need to improve during the middle overs. I think our total was about par.”
The two teams meet for the third T20I at the same ground on Tuesday starting at 8pm CAT (SA, GMT+2).