50 overs West Indies 335 for 8 (Hope 128*, Powell 46, Coetzee 3-57) vs South Africa
Nevertheless, it was solely six weeks again that South Africa had chased down 343 towards England in Bloemfontein. They’re with out six of the XI from that day by way of a mixture of squad rotation, accidents and sickness, and have three debut batters within the staff – Ryan Rickelton, Tony de Zorzi and Tristan Stubbs – as they check their depth.
And the unavailability of Sisanda Magala, who cut up the webbing on his proper hand, meant South Africa had solely 5 bowlers at their disposal, which left them with out choices to maintain West Indies quiet for sustained durations of time.
On a gradual pitch, South Africa began with pace as Ngidi and Jansen took the brand new balls. Ngidi looked for swing, and located some, however didn’t bowl a single slower ball in his first spell, whereas Jansen erred on the facet of too full. The primary boundary got here off him, when Brandon King drove by way of further cowl, after which lower him behind level for successive fours.
Jansen adjusted to barely shorter, and Kyle Mayers pulled him by way of sq. leg in response. When he tried size, Mayers hit him onto the grass financial institution for the innings’ first six. West Indies had been 66 with out loss after eight overs earlier than Temba Bavuma turned to spin. At home degree, Bjorn Fortuin has made a behavior of taking wickets in his opening over, and he did precisely that in East London, albeit not along with his greatest ball.
Mayers pulled a half-tracker to Rickelton at deep midwicket to spark a mini-collapse. He was the primary of three dismissals in 12 balls as Shamarh Brooks chopped a brief ball from Coetzee onto his stumps, and King was bowled by a Fortuin yorker that snuck beneath the bat.
At 71 for 3, West Indies wanted to rebuild, and it was as much as present and former captains – Hope and Nicholas Pooran – to try this. They took on the spinners with good use of the toes – and likewise Jansen, who continued to battle to search out the precise size – sharing a stand of 86 runs from 79 balls which took West Indies previous 150.
After 30 overs, West Indies had been 184 for 4 they usually began the thirty first with Hope reaching fifty off 59 balls. A goal of 330-plus was within the offing till Powell bottom-edged one other Coetzee quick ball onto his stumps and South Africa utilized a squeeze. They gave away simply eight runs within the subsequent 22 balls, together with a scoreless over from Jansen, earlier than one other former chief in Jason Holder broke the drought by hitting Coetzee over his head for 4.
Hope neared the 90s with sixes off Fortuin and Ngidi, and placed on 42 with Holder earlier than evaluation from Quinton de Kock separated them. Holder bought all the way down to reverse sweep Shamsi, who got here again to bowl out within the final six overs, however the ball hit Holder’s bicep. Marais Erasmus was not satisfied however ball monitoring confirmed it will go on to hit the stumps.
Jansen had Akeal Hosein out lbw with an inswinging yorker, and Odean Smith was bowled by a Shamsi incorrect ‘un that he didn’t choose earlier than Hope introduced up his hundred. It got here off the 104th ball he confronted with a single to deep sq. leg, and was met with pretty modest celebration.
However Hope nonetheless had a job to do. He began the forty eighth over by whacking Jansen over further cowl for six, and scored 28 runs off the final 9 balls he confronted. West Indies scored 93 runs off the final ten overs, together with 40 runs off the final three. Nevertheless, the staff batting second have received seven out of 11 day-night video games at Buffalo Park so South Africa will fancy their possibilities of looking down 336.
Firdose Moonda is ESPNcricinfo’s correspondent for South Africa and ladies’s cricket
