Posted by After a comprehensive win in the first test match over the West Indies, South Africa don’t fail to miss out on the second as well and take the 2 match test series 2-0.
It’s been slightly overcast with the short delayed starts due to rain. West Indies with a couple of changes, Shannon Gabriel and Powell are back, they win the toss and invite South Africa to bat.
Aiden Markram and Dean Elgar make their way to the middle, Roach and Gabriel share the new ball. Early fun for Windies as South Africa were 3 down for 37. Verreynne does well to stick in there for a fair bit of time with captain Elgar who reaches his half century and the 87 run partnership between the pair that helped South Africa settle and take control comes to an end as Verreynne walks back with 27 to his name, valuable runs those. Captain Elgar very composed on the other end, soon De Kock going at quick pace reached his half century and another good 79 run partnership marked it’s end as Elgar walked back on 77. The tail in play, Maharaj out for 12 and soon set batsmen De Kock fell 4 short of another century on tour, Mayers making it a habit to pick wickets of set batters. Nortje and Ngidi have 1 to their names and Rabada remained not out on 21. South Africa post 298 on board and saved an early collapse. After some early fun it was toil hard for Windies especially with a couple of big partnerships. Roach and Mayers with 3 each to their names top the wickets chart, a couple for Gabriel and a wicket each to Seales and Holder.
West Indies in reply don’t show a lot of change from the last game and have again found themselves in trouble facing the South African pacers. Wicket on ball 1 for Rabada and very soon both openers were back in shed. Hope building windies hope stood tall at an end but wickets kept tumbling from the other. Blackwood joins Hope and there was a small partnership but soon Hope fell and wickets again started tumbling, the gained resistance was lost. No show from tailenders saw Windies all out on 149, surviving 54 overs. Blackwood the highest with 49 to his name followed by Hope with 43. Mulder, the pick of bowlers, short spell of 4 overs and he picked up 3 wickets. A couple of wickets each to Rabada, Ngidi and Maharaj. Nortje with a wicket to his name.
South Africa with a lead of 149 decide to quickly score runs and invite Windies to bat. Windies start well as they get Elgar early, Roach dismissing both openers. Holder and Mayers get South Africa 7 down for 73 as the Proteases loose 6 for 40 in that passage of play. With the tail in to bat South Africa put a special display as Van Der Dussen from the middle order was in the middle, the tail stuck in and a match or say a series saving knock from Dussen of 75* was special and was the highest run getter followed by tailender Rabada who put up quick 40 on board. A collapse survived and a good total on board. Roach tops the wickets chart with 4 and Mayers continues to spill his magic with 3 wickets to his name. A wicket each to Holder, Brathwaite and Seales. The lead and the 2nd innings total saw South Africa post a massive 324 on board.
Windies in reply had nothing special, their poor run with bat continues. Powell had done well to stick in and saw the wickets tumble from the other end. Mayers and Blackwood both have had starts but have not converted them into big runs and Powell had his test half century and soon there came a hat-trick for Keshav Maharaj as he strikes wickets of Powell, Holder and Joshua Da Silva, such a dominating series by the proteas deserved something special and that hat-trick was just that. Tailender, Roach adds 27 that saw windies end on 165. Injured Chase doesn’t make his way out and that’s was all Windies could crawl to. A hat-trick and a couple more wickets end Maharaj’s memorable outing with a 5 wicket haul as he tops the wickets list. Rabada with 3 in his bank and a wicket to Lungi Ngidi. South Africa win the 2nd test with a big margin of 152.
With personal scores of 141 and 96 Quinton De Kock is named the Player of series and Kagiso Rabada with 5 wickets and 61 runs to his name is named the player of match. Scores of 97, 162, 149 and 165 is all that Windies have managed as a whole during this series, serious batting failures in home conditions sound alarm bells for Windies Cricket board to deal with. South Africa were coming off a test series defeat, these two comprehensive victories over the Windies has marked a new begining for this South African team.
Bureau of sports 