Wednesday 30 / October / 2024
St. George: A very disciplined bowling effort and a superb half-century from opener Quinton de Kock helped South Africa in getting a crucial 2-1 series lead against West Indies here in Grenada on Tuesday (local time).
After setting the West Indies 168 for victory, fast bowler Anrich Nortje and Kagiso Rabada held their nerves in the final two overs to limit the West Indies batsmen. With 15 needed off the final over, the home side came very close - with Fabian Allen hitting the final ball for a six.
Several West Indies batsmen got starts but were unable to carry on. Andre Russell smashed three sixes in 25, while Nicholas Pooran made 27 as they shared a sixth-wicket partnership of 46 in four overs. South Africa's bowling hero was again Tabraiz Shamsi, the left-arm chinaman specialist, who had brilliant figures of 4-0-13-2, to earn the Player-of-the-Match award.
Earlier in the match, Quinton de Kock claimed his seventh T20I fifty from 34 balls, hitting five fours and two sixes. For West Indies left-arm pacer Obed McCoy continued his hugely impressive run of form, with a number of superb slower balls and cutters. The 24-year-old took a career-best figure of 4-22 off four overs - to better the previous best of 3-25 on Sunday.
Van der Dussen joined de Kock in the tenth over as the pair combined in a partnership of 60 from 45 balls before de Kock fell in the 18th over to Dwayne Bravo. Van der Dussen finished with 32 off 24 balls before his departure.
South Africa opted with spin at both ends in a quest to defend their total, and after conceding 20 runs in the first two overs, their plan looked to have backfired. But soon, George Linde was able to hit back in the seventh over, claiming Lendl Simmons for 22.
Spin was the order in the middle overs, and despite conceding 30 runs in overs nine and ten, South Africa were able to tighten the screws through premier spinner Shamsi. Claiming Evin Lewis for 27 and Shimron Hetmyer for 17, the left-armer did not concede a boundary in his spell, stringing 11 dot balls across his four overs.
In the end, crucial death overs from Anrich Nortje and Kagiso Rabada helped visitors to edge past West Indies by 1 run in the match.
Overall another 14 sixes were hit in Tuesday's match at Grenada National Cricket Stadium, taking the overall total at the ground to 73 from four T20Is - no other venue that has hosted four or more T20Is has a higher average six-count, as per Cricket West Indies(CWI).
South Africa now leads the T20I Series 2-1. The two teams will return to the same venue on Thursday for the fourth contest of the five-match series.
