West Indies Dominate South Africa for Series Sweep Ahead of T20 World Cup
The West Indies secured a series sweep against South Africa, winning the three-match T20I series 3-0.
Prior to the T20 World Cup, South Africa will be particularly concerned about the unsatisfactory performances of Quinton de Kock and Anrich Nortje.
South Africa (163 for 7; van dur Dussen 51, McCoy 3-39, Motie 2-21, S Joseph 2-26) lost to the West Indies (165 for 2) by eight wickets.
The West Indies ended their T20 World Cup preparations in the most dominant manner imaginable by winning all three of their T20I series against South Africa. However, South Africa is starting the global competition from a disadvantage since they have only won two of their past 11 T20I matches that have been completed since the last T20 World Cup. They have also lost series to Australia and the West Indies twice.
The fact that South Africa’s formidable middle order—Henrik Klaasen, David Miller, Aiden Markram, and Tristan Stubbs—were absent from this series and will all be back for the World Cup is a small solace. However, worries over Ryan Rickelton, who got just 43 runs in three innings, and Quinton de Kock, who scored 64 runs in three innings but didn’t have a good time at the BBL, SA20, or IPL earlier, as well as his apparent back issue on Sunday, still exist.
Anrich Nortje’s 12.16 economy rate during the series and the fact that he hasn’t claimed any wickets has cast doubt on his fitness for international cricket following an almost nine-month layoff due to a stress fracture in his lower back. However, he is included in South Africa’s World Cup final squad.
Before their first World Cup encounter in Guyana, the West Indies play Australia in a warm-up match in Trinidad, and they look as prepared as they can be. Since the last T20 World Cup, they have won four of the previous five series, and in this one, they defeated South Africa 3-0 for the first time. They were forced to chase and were tracked down 164 inside 14 overs to easily defeat South Africa again, having earlier won the series by defending totals of 175 and 207.
With a 3 for 39 performance in the last game, Obed McCoy—who was brought into the T20 World Cup team to replace the injured Jason Holder—was the most effective bowler, and stand-in captain Brandon King emerged as the series’ top run scorer.
15 months prior, in a Twenty20 International in Centurion, Johnson Charles demonstrated his worth to be back in the squad by hitting 118 off just 46 balls against South Africa. But things haven’t been going well for him since then. Charles failed to reach fifty runs in ten innings, and there were serious concerns raised about his potential involvement with the T20 World Cup squad.
With a knock of total confidence and authority, though, he erased those doubts, bringing up his fifth T20I half-century and laying the groundwork for another West Indies victory. Most impressive was Charles’s defeat of Nortje and Gerald Coetzee, the fastest people in South Africa. He hit 22 runs off four balls from Coetzee, including three consecutive sixes, and 25 runs off just ten balls from Nortje. Even though he was removed in the seventh over, he had already assured the outcome with just three of his 69 runs coming from singles.
Left-arm spinner Gudakesh Motie looked destined for a similar haul after two outstanding overs. Motie had taken three wickets in each of his previous three outings. He entered the game just after the powerplay and used good pace changes to trap de Kock, who played a reverse sweep too soon and was eventually given out.
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Matthew Breetzke smashed the ball back over the bowler’s head in Motie’s subsequent over. The leading run scorer in the CSA T20 for the 2023–24 season, Shamar Joseph, finished a poor tour with a good catch inside the boundary rope. Although it appeared to be a clean strike, it wasn’t timed as well as he planned.
Motie was 2 for 5 after two overs, but his day didn’t end the way he had anticipated. Rassie van der Dussen smashed him for two sixes in his final over, costing him 11 runs, and he was never used again.
Van der Dussen, who was left out of South Africa’s T20 World Cup team but was asked to lead them in this series, has not had the best few months. But on this tour, he had the final say. Van der Dussen showed off his powerful hitting abilities by scoring a 30-ball fifty to help South Africa go from 50 for 4 to 163 for 7. His 77-run fifth-wicket stand with Wiaan Mulder was the difference between a South African collapse and some sort of competition. He struck all five of his sixes in the V between long-off and long-on.
When Van van Dussen pulled a Hayden Walsh Jr. delivery from outside off to long-on, where Kyle Mayers was ready for the catch, on nine, the knock may have stopped there. He took it cleanly, but he went over the boundary rope with the ball in hand because he didn’t realize how close his rear foot was to it. The first person to indicate that he had earned six was Van der Dussen.
After six overs, Mayers was poised to make a two-handed grab at long-on after Mulder mishit a slower ball from McCoy. Mayers had the room to fall, hold on, and prevent a boundary.
Charles created the groundwork for Mayers’ unbeaten knock of 36 runs, which included four sixes from the bat. However, Mayers is still listed as a reserve for the West Indies T20 World Cup team.
