South Africa vs West Indies Test series Archives

JOHANNESBURG: South Africa’s bowlers ripped through the West Indies batting as the hosts completed a 284-run win on the fourth day of the second Test at the Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg on Saturday.

The West Indies were bowled out for 106 after being set to make 391 to win.

South Africa won the two-match World Test Championship series 2-0.

The match was effectively won and lost in 8.1 overs leading up to lunch when the West Indies crashed to 34 for six.

Fast bowler Kagiso Rabada struck twice in three balls and sparked the collapse after opening batsmen Kraigg Brathwaite and Tagenarine Chanderpaul survived the first 10 overs, putting on 21 runs.

Rabada dismissed Brathwaite for the seventh time in successive innings when he trapped the West Indian captain leg before wicket for 18 with a ball which kept low.

Two balls later Raymon Reifer gloved a catch down the leg side to wicketkeeper Heinrich Klaasen.

Spinners Simon Harmer and Keshav Maharaj also took two wickets each as the West Indies lost six wickets for 13 runs.

Off-spinner Harmer shared the new ball with Rabada and extracted extravagant turn, having Chanderpaul caught at second slip after the left-hander had faced 36 balls and scored only two runs.

Roston Chase, Jermaine Blackwood and Kyle Mayers all fell cheaply with South Africa’s only setback coming after Maharaj won a successful appeal for leg before wicket against Mayers in the last over before lunch.

In celebrating, the left-arm spinner collapsed and was stretchered off the field with a left ankle tendon injury.

Maharaj was taken for a scan. With all-rounder Wiaan Mulder suffering a right index finger injury, which also required a scan, South Africa were effectively down to three frontline bowlers. The West Indies batting, though, had already been wrecked.

Mulder returned after lunch but was not required to bowl.

Joshua Da Silva, Jason Holder and Alzarri Joseph all played some aggressive strokes after lunch as the last four wickets yielded 72 runs before the match ended soon after the afternoon drinks break.

There had been concerns about Rabada’s fitness after he suffered back pain during the first innings but he showed no signs of discomfort during a hostile seven-over spell.

South Africa were bowled out for 321 earlier, with captain Temba Bavuma adding only one run to his overnight 171 before he was caught at deep square leg off Holder.

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JOHANNESBURG: Former captain Jason Holder lifted a struggling West Indies and frustrated South Africa with an innings of 81 not out on the second day of the second Test at the Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg on Thursday.

Thanks largely to Holder, the West Indies scored 251 in their first innings. They trailed by 69 runs but it looked likely to be much worse before Holder played a sparkling innings.

“The important thing for us was to stay in the game,” Holder said after inspiring a rearguard action in which the last four wickets added 135 runs.

“We’ve been in this situation before,” he told SuperSport television. “You’ve got to put trust in your partners and give them responsibility.”

South Africa faced three overs at the end of the day, scoring four runs without loss to take their overall lead to 73 runs.

Whereas none of his teammates could score freely — and none managed more than Kyle Mayers’ battling 29 off 83 balls — the tall Holder looked in command from the start of his innings.

Batting at number eight, he went in with the West Indies in big trouble at 116 for six in reply to South Africa’s 320 all out.

Holder and Joshua Da Silva (26) started the recovery by putting on 41 for the seventh wicket.

The comeback accelerated as the last two batsmen, Kemar Roach (13) and Gudakesh Motie (17) helped Holder add 89 runs for the last two wickets.

The 10th-wicket partnership of 58 with Motie was the highest of the innings.

Holder admitted he would like to bat higher in the order. “I’ve had an indifferent time of late,” he said, “but I would like to bat at number six.”

Holder hit four sixes and eight fours in a 117-ball innings and said the Wanderers pitch was “pretty good for batters”.

Gerald Coetzee, playing in his second Test, took three for 41 and fellow fast bowler Kagiso Rabada took two for 19. Rabada only sent down 12 overs and did not bowl after tea.

On a pitch expected to take spin later in the match, spinners Simon Harmer and Keshav Maharaj bowled a combined 38.3 overs but could only take three wickets while conceding 140 runs.

Coetzee, 22, said he had set out to “hit the pitch” and bowl fast in the absence of the injured Anrich Nortje. “If you look at the bowling attack today I think that was my role. I enjoy hitting the pitch.”

Coetzee said his impressive start in Test cricket had been eased by being part of the South African Test squad in Australia earlier in the season, even though he did not play a match.

“I went there as a back-up bowler but to be there and learn was exactly what I needed.”

Coetzee said the Wanderers pitch provided a more even contest between bat and ball than the first Test in Centurion, “but there is something for the bowlers”.

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Tag: South Africa vs West Indies Test series

South Africa win by 284 runs as West Indies collapse

Holder lifts West Indies and frustrates South Africa