South Africa beat West Indies by 1 run in third T20 match

South Africa beat West Indies by 1 run to take a 2-1 lead in the T20 series. After being put in to bat for a third time in the series the Proteas had a bright start and raced to 147 for 3 in 16 overs. But Obed McCoy and Dwayne Bravo pulled things back in the final overs to restrict the visitors to 167 for the loss of 8 wickets in 20 overs. Quinto de Kock top scored for South Africa with 72, with some support from Rassie van der Dussien (32) and Aiden Markram (23). Meanwhile West Indies rode on the power hitting of Andre Russell, Ewin Lewis and Nicolas Pooran to finish one run short at 166 at the play.

Early on, de Kock started brightly and pulled McCoy down the square leg for a maximum. But the West Indies pacer came back stronger and dismissed opener Reeza Hendricks. His short pitched delivery saw Hendricks play one straight to deep square leg by Fabian Allen. In the same over the 24-year-old dismissed Temba Bavuma with a back of the hand slower ball. Meanwhile Markram who came in for Klaasen in the side stitched together a partnership of 43 runs with de Kock before being caught at long on from Bravo’s slow full toss.

De Kock carried on his impressive stroke play at the other and stitched a partnership of 60 runs with van der Dussen before losing his wicket to the veteran Bravo. The wicket-keeper batsman hit five boundaries and two maximum’s during his 51 ball stay at the crease.  McCoy bowled Linde with a slow yorker to end his spell at 4-22 in 4 overs. Whereas Bravo finished with 3-25.

South Africa, West Indies play out thriller

West Indies started the chase with clean power hitting by Lewis and Lendl Simmons. Lewis smashed left-arm spinner down the long on for a maximum in the opening over. However Linde came back and had Simmons caught behind in the sixth over to break the partnership. Meanwhile another spinner Shamsi had Lewis caught at fine leg by van der Dussen.

Wickets fell at regular intervals. Ngidi dismissed Jason Holder with a slower ball. Shamsi had Shimron Hetmeyer caught at point and Rabada cleaned up Kieron Pollard. Russell came in at number seven hit three sixes and scored a quick fire 27 in 16 balls. However, he was soon dismissed by Nortje. Shamsi finished with the an economical figure of 2 for 13 in four overs.

Rabada was tasked with bowling the final over with 15 runs to defend. Fabian Allen started with a boundary and finished with a six. But the 26-year-old pacer held his nerve in between to win the game by one run.