3 years ago
1
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At SuperSport Park, Centurion
A Test match that looked to have the potential of a run-feast ended in a cascade of wickets as South Africa maintained their Test stranglehold over the West Indies with an 87-run win on the third evening on Thursday.
South Africa's collapse to 116, their lowest score against the visitors, set the West Indies 247 to win, which would have been the second-highest successful run chase at the ground.
The battling Jermaine Blackwood (79) tried his best to keep his team afloat, but no other batter crossed 20 as Kagiso Rabada summoned his reserves to break the back of the West Indian resistance at crucial times.
The West Indies bowled well enough to keep their team in the hunt, especially after they took 10 SA wickets for just 85 runs from the second evening right through the first session.
They just didn't have the batting reserves and temperament to challenge the hosts on a surface that switched up on the batters like a cornered cobra.
It had started placid enough to allow Aiden Markram (115 and 47) to score the game's only century and share big stands with Dean Elgar and Tony de Zorzi.
But once SA collapsed from 221/1 to 342 all out, it became a bowler's game to a point where all four innings saw pacemen take five-fers.
Alzarri Joseph's 5/81 was countered by Anrich Nortje's 5/36, which was met by Kemar Roach's 5/47. The last five-wicket haul is always the one that mattered, with Rabada taking 6/50 to ensure Markram's batting contributions didn't go to waste.
After being dismissed for their paltry total 18 minutes before lunch, SA only needed three balls to get their wicket account off the mark when Rabada strangled West Indian captain Kraigg Brathwaite (0) down the leg-side.
It was a dismissal that forced lunch and when the sides came back, they should have had the Windies two down without scoring.
However, Keegan Petersen's safe hands failed him when he grassed a catchable chance offered by Tagenarine Chanderpaul off Anrich Nortje at third slip.
In the long run, it didn't hurt SA as wickets were being taken at the other end, with Raymon Reifer (8) driving an edge from Rabada into Heinrich Klaasen's diving hands.
That saw the West Indies slip to 12/2 and it became 20/3 two and a half overs later when Chanderpaul (10) mistimed pull/hook off Marco Jansen landed in Anrich Nortje's safe hands.
Then, the very next ball, Roston Chase shouldered arms to a Jansen delivery that rocked his off-stump, leaving the visitors tottering at 20/4.
SA needed another 28 balls to collect their fifth wicket when Kyle Mayers (0) offered a thick outside edge off Gerald Coetzee that was well-taken by Dean Elgar at first slip.
The West Indies needed Blackwood's flashing blade to try to bring them back into the contest where he scored at a run-a-ball
In reaching his boundary-laden 18th Test 50 off 51 balls, he shared a fifth-wicket stand of 58 off 64 balls with Josh da Silva (17).
Blackwood's blade, one that he's more than happy to die by, gave the West Indies some hope, but some of that was extinguished when Da Silva picked out Petersen at third slip off Rabada.
Blackwood then partnered with Jason Holder (17) for a quick-fire 37-run stand off 43 balls that took the Windies past the halfway mark of their target.
Holder, with his straight and cover driving, looked extremely dangerous before he feathered a Rabada delivery to Klaasen.
Alzarri Joseph (4) couldn't last long with Blackwood, holing out to Rabada at fine leg off Nortje to leave the West Indies at 139/8.
Blackwood eventually fell with the score on 157 when he guided a Rabada bouncer to Markram at second slip to end a fine innings.
Rabada then trapped fellow fast bowler Roach in front to end what was a fraught Test match, but one that SA fully deserved to win.
While SA's overnight position of 49/4 was precarious, there was hope that Markram (47) and Heinrich Klaasen (5) were going to boost the lead.
Klaasen though couldn't resist going after a wide Roach delivery, chasing it into Da Silva's hands as SA slipped to 57/5, with the lead being 187 at the time.
Roach, the most experienced of the West Indian bowlers, channelled his inner Courtney Walsh with his expert use of the crease.
It allowed him to make the most of the seam movement available as the SA batters lost sight of where their off-stump.
Four of Roach's five wickets were caught behind, forming the bulk of the seven dismissals taken by Da Silva.
Jansen (6) was the only batter who had his stumps disturbed, with Roach being the executioner as SA slumped to 76/7 at the point of his dismissal.
Before he trudged back to the dressing room in what was an unending procession in the hi-octane first session, Markram also fell victim to the Roach/Da Silva combination where he was claimed by the delivery that left him after pitching.
Markram's exit, one that Roach had to desperately plead for, had not only left SA at 69/6, but also left a test for Proteas' red-ball coach Shukri Conrad's theory of seven batters and four bowlers.
On an unreliable surface, it should have been insurance, but it wasn't, especially in the face of the hostile bowling from the West Indians.
Muthusamy (4) may have hung around for 36 balls, but made no visible impact when he gloved Shannon Gabriel down the leg-side.
It was a dismissal that bought SA to its knees at 80/8, but brought together Coetzee (20) and Rabada (17*) for what became the most important partnership of the match.
Their ninth-wicket stand of 29 off 24 balls crucially took SA's lead past 226, the second-highest fourth-innings target achieved at this ground.
After a six and two fours, Coetzee's impetuosity got the better of him when he tried to hook Roach, but only ended up being caught behind.
That left Nortje and Rabada to take the target past 250, but they failed by just four runs when the former became Roach's fifth wicket.
Their runs and Rabada's wickets proved to be enough to give SA their first Test win since the Lord's test against England last year.
Scores in brief
South Africa: 342 (Aiden Markram 115, Alzarri Joseph 5/81) and 116 (Markram 47, Gerald Coetzee 20, Kagiso Rabada 17, Kemar Roach 5/47, Joseph 2/7, Jason Holder 2/30, Shannon Gabriel 1/26)
West Indies: 212 (Raymon Reifer 62, Anrich Nortje 5/36) and 159 (Jermaine Blackwood 79, Jason Holder 18, Josh da Silva 17, Rabada 6/50, Marco Jansen 2/33, Coetzee 1/20, Nortje 1/48)
South Africa won by 87 runs.
English (US)