The Test series finale between the West Indies and the Proteas has gotten off to a white-knuckle start, with the bowlers from both teams making merry. It was the hometown hero Shamar Joseph who set the tone, but the South African bowlers have responded with a bang.
Temba Bavuma won the toss and chose to bat on a dicey pitch at Providence. Interestingly, this was the first Test match held in Guyana in around 13 years, and it would produce quite the spectacle today.
Jayden Seales would get the hosts off to a brisk start with the wicket of Tony de Zorzi, but it wasn’t until Joseph’s introduction when the Proteas innings quickly went south. A poorly judged leave from Aiden Markram and the skipper getting trapped in front gave the speedster two wickets in an over.
Tristan Stubbs and David Bedingham tried to rebuild, but just when they were consolidating, Jason Holder struck to remove a reasonably well-set Stubbs. It was a relatively sedate knock, and an attempted drive took the edge and went to third slip.
Joseph would return to remove Bedingham, and with both settled batters out of the way, it paved the way for the Windies to create further inroads. Wiaan Mulder nicked one to the keeper off Seales, while Keshav Maharaj and Kagiso Rabada both had their stumps rearranged.
Kyle Verreynne became Joseph’s 5th wicket, in what was a performance of dreams at his home venue. For a brief moment, SA were in danger of getting rolled over for under 100.
But there was yet another plot twist, as Dane Piedt and Nandre Burger resisted with all their might. Initially, it was Piedt who took the attack to the opposition, hitting boundaries off Gudakesh Motie. But soon enough, Burger would follow suit and hit two boundaries of his own. SA averted their worst first-innings score against WI, and put on their highest ever final-wicket stand.
The entertaining partnership came to an end at 63, with Motie trapping Burger LBW. The Proteas had 160 on the board, which seemed far from sufficient, but there would be more fun to follow.
Burger followed his rearguard with the bat with the wicket of Mikyle Louis in the second over, and Wiaan Mulder would soon steal the show with a fantastic day with the ball.
The medium pacer got the better of the WI skipper, and powered through the rest of the top 5. He took an unbelievable reflex catch to remove the dangerous Alick Athanaze cheaply, and got Kavem Hodge to edge to Stubbs at third slip.
Keacy Carty took his chances, but his cameo came to an end when he tamely chipped one to midwicket, giving Burger a second wicket. Mulder would return and draw another slip catch from Joshua da Silva. All of a sudden, the hosts were 56/6 and staring down a sizable 1st-innings deficit.
Fortunately for WI, Jason Holder did well to stick around and take full toll of scoring opportunities. He remained unbeaten on 33, and got some useful support from Gudakesh Motie at #8.
But once again, SA would have the last word. Keshav Maharaj had Motie plumb in front to wrap up the day’s play.
Interestingly, the Windies have 3 wickets in hand for the same number of runs when the Proteas lost their 9th wicket. Will they be able to add some crucial runs and potentially match SA? Or will the visitors wrap up the tail and push for a handy little 1st-innings advantage? Tune in tomorrow.
SA 160 all out in 54 overs (Piedt 38* – Joseph 14-4-33-5)
WI 97/7 in 28.2 overs (Holder 33* – Mulder 6-2-18-4)
