Proteas secure Test and T20 series wins over West Indies
Victory by 25 runs gave the Proteas a 3-2 T20 international series triumph over the current ICC T20 World Cup Champions, West Indies, when they met for the series decider at the National Cricket Stadium on Saturday.
This means that South Africa have successfully claimed back-to-back series wins against the home team following the Dean Elgar-led Test series sweep. Today also marks Temba Bavuma’s first series win in his new position as T20 team captain.
A match-winning, 128-run, second-wicket stand between Quinton de Kock and Aiden Markram set up the visitors’ road to their final score of 168/4 at the end of their allotted overs. De Kock made a 42-ball 60 while Markram returned a career-best score of 70 off 48 (3x4s, 4x6s).
David Miller and Wiaan Mulder then returned unbeaten for 18 and nine respectively.
With the ball, Tabraiz Shamsi did not disappoint in keeping the West Indian batsmen quiet, but it was the inclusion of Mulder (2/31) into the attack that provided the game changing moment of the day. He took the consecutive wickets of captain Kieron Pollard (13) and Andre Russell (0) to halt the Windies’ chase, while Kagiso Rabada (2/24) and Lungi Ngidi (3/32) polished off the tail at the death after beginning with good strides up front.
Markram was named Player of the Match and Shamsi received the Player of the Series accolade.