Johnson Charles chose the right moment as West Indies completed their clean sweep versus South Africa . Close on the heels of being named the replacement for Jason Holder in the T20 World Cup, Obed McCoy came up with an impactful performance with the ball along with Shamar Joseph and Gudakesh Motie as West Indies registered a 3-0 clean sweep in the T20I series against South Africa, winning the third T20I by eight wickets.
Johnson Charles starred with the bat for the hosts, while Brandon King and Kyle Mayers also came up with useful knocks as West Indies went past a target of 164 in just 13.5 overs at Sabina Park in Kingston, Jamaica.
Pitch and Toss
In the 1st T20I, there was a heavy covering of grass. The grass is there because of constant rolling it has become brown, the moisture has gone out. So, the wicket looks better now. It was better for batting in the 2nd T20I as compared to the 1st T20I, mention Samuel Badree and Carlos Brathwaite in their pitch report
South Africa skipper Rassie Van der Dussen won the toss and chose to bat making two changes bringing in debutant Patrick Kruger for Andile Phelukwayo and Gerald Coetzee for Lungi Ngidi. Brandon King bowling first also handed debutant to Alick Athanaze and Hayden Walsh in place of Romario Shepherd.
Gudakesh Motie makes the most of the conditions in the powerplay
Earlier, opting to bat, South Africa lost Reeza Hendricks early before Quinton de Kock and Ryan Rickelton started building a partnership. But from 43/1 in the sixth over, South Africa slipped to 50/4 in the ninth as McCoy and Motie struck in quick succession to hurt the batting side’s progress. At the halfway stage, South Africa had only managed 63 runs and needed a powerful performance in the second half of their innings. Motie makes the most of it
After taking three wickets in each of his last three games, left-arm spinner Gudakesh Motie seemed set for a similar haul after two exceptional overs. He was brought on immediately after the powerplay, and displayed good changes of pace to have de Kock trapped lbw, as the latter played a reverse sweep too early and was given out.
In Motie’s next over, Matthew Breetzke hit the ball back over the bowler’s head. It looked like a clean strike but wasn’t timed as well as he intended, and Shamar Joseph took a good catch inside the boundary rope to end a disappointing tour for the CSA T20’s top run-scorer for the 2023-24 season.
After two overs, Motie had 2 for 5, but his day didn’t finish as well as he would have hoped. He conceded 11 runs off his final over, as Rassie van der Dussen hit him for two sixes, and he wasn’t used again.
Van der Dussen’s statement innings make SA fight in middle overs
Excluded from South Africa’s T20 World Cup squad but asked to captain them in this series, van der Dussen has not had the easiest few months. But he had a strong last say on this tour. Van der Dussen scored a 30-ball fifty to take South Africa from 50 for 4 to 163 for 7, and demonstrated strong hitting skills straight down the ground. All five of his sixes were scored in the V between long-off and long-on, and his 77-run fifth-wicket stand with Wiaan Mulder was the difference between a South African collapse and a semblance of competitiveness.
Skipper Rassie van de Dussen and Wiaan Mulder put on 77 for the fifth wicket off 49 balls to give South Africa some impetus. McCoy, however, ended the stand by dismissing Mulder for 36 and also picked up the wicket of van der Dussen after he crossed fifty.
Mayers misses, and then he doesn’t as Obed McCoy’s sincere bowling restricts SA to 163 for 7 in 20 overs
Van der Dussen’s knock could have ended on 9 when he dragged a Hayden Walsh Jnr delivery from outside off to long-on, where Kyle Mayers was waiting for the catch. He took it cleanly but misjudged how close his back foot was to the boundary rope and stepped over it with the ball in hand. Van der Dussen was the first to gesture that he had earned six.
Six overs later, Mulder mis-hit a McCoy slower ball to long-on, where Mayers was ready to take the catch two-handed, with more than enough space behind him to tumble, hold on and avoid giving away a boundary. With the bat, Mayers cracked four sixes in an unbeaten knock of 36, helping wrap the chase up after Charles had laid the foundation. But Mayers remains a reserve player in the West Indies T20 World Cup squad.
South Africa added 100 runs in their last 10 overs but the struggle in their first 10 overs meant that they could not post a bigger total, with 163 proving not enough.
The redemption of Johnson Charles in the Powerplay
It was against South Africa, 15 months ago, that Johnson Charles made the case to reclaim his spot in the T20I squad with 118 off just 46 balls in a T20I in Centurion. But since then, it has been lean going for him. Johnson Charles went ten innings without crossing fifty, and questions over his T20 World Cup-squad involvement were more than just whispers.
But he silenced those questions with a knock of complete assurance and authority to bring up his fifth T20I half-century, and set the platform for another West Indies win.
Johnson Charles’ takedown of South Africa’s fastest, Nortje and Gerald Coetzee, was most impressive. Johnson Charles scored 25 runs off just ten balls from Nortje, and 22 off four from Coetzee, including three successive sixes. Only three of Johnson Charles 69 runs came in singles, and even though Johnson Charles was dismissed in the seventh over, he had already put the result beyond doubt.
Johnson Charles set the tone for the chase with three successive fours off Anrich Nortje in the opening over, while both King and Johnson Charles struck a six each off Bjorn Fortuin in the second. Gerald Coetzee was even more expensive in his first over, being hit for three sixes and a four in succession by Johnson Charles, with 23 coming off the third over.
By the time the powerplay was completed, West Indies had raced away to 83/0, with Johnson Charles having brought up a 20-ball fifty with a four off Nortje and following it up with two more boundaries.
Nqaba Peter was also hit for a six by Johnson Charles but he managed to dismiss the opener with a short delivery. King then took over the aggressor’s role, hitting a four off Patrick Kruger followed by two sixes in an over off Peter. Mayers struck a six off Reeza Hendricks as West Indies moved to 128/1 after 10 overs.
Kyle Mayers and Alick Athanaze completes easy clean sweep for West Indies
King was dismissed by Coetzee six short of a half-century but Mayers went on a six-hitting spree as he completed the chase in the 14th over. West Indies struck as many as 13 sixes in their innings, nearly double of what South Africa scored. With the bat, Mayers cracked four sixes in an unbeaten knock of 36, helping wrap the chase up after Charles had laid the foundation. But Mayers remains a reserve player in the West Indies T20 World Cup squad.
Close on the heels of being named the replacement for Jason Holder in the T20 World Cup, Obed McCoy came up with an impactful performance with the ball along with Shamar Joseph and Gudakesh Motie as West Indies registered a 3-0 clean sweep in the T20I series against South Africa, winning the third T20I by eight wickets. Johnson Charles starred with the bat for the hosts, while Brandon King and Kyle Mayers also came up with useful knocks as West Indies went past a target of 164 in just 13.5 overs at Sabina Park in Kingston, Jamaica.
Presentations and Road Ahead
Rassie Van der Dussen the loosing SA captain said :
“Thoroughly disappointing, we have been taught a lesson, we couldn’t adapt, still today we couldn’t time the ball well so not happy with that. You can chat all you want, you have to deliver in the middle. The chatting is done, some of the guys will be coming into the squad for the World Cup,”
“They are playing in their home conditions but that’s no excuse, we also have some spinning pitches back at home. They were good with the bat and they were better with the ball than us. The majority of the squad are playing together for 3-4 years so they know each other. De Kock finding some form was good and Peter did well. But, overall it was not good enough from us,”
Brandon King the winning skipper said :
“I have been playing well, couldn’t finish the game today but I’m pleased with my own performance. We played well as a unit, we are playing with the same guys since the last 1-2 years. It’s really important, some good momentum going into the World Cup,”
“Our bowling performance was very pleasing, we were very consistent, our batters also performed well, different contributions throughout the series. A lot of our main players were missing, still performing the way we did was great,”
Johnson Charles Player of the Match for his innings said :
“It was great, we have been working hard during the camp building up to this series. Just enforcing the basics to be honest, I’m working on it, it came off today, it’s about implementing. You saw it is about confidence, even in the two games I didn’t score but I was feeling good. It’s going to be great, these are good signs. Not having a full squad but we still beat South Africa 3-0,”
Gudakesh Motie Player of the series said:
“Very pleased with my performance, I’m working very hard. I have been working hard in the middle trying different variations such as the wide yorker. (On their matches in T20 World Cup) We are not playing outside the Caribbean. Most of the surfaces will be similar,”
A clinical performance from the West Indies to cap off the series! Their bowlers set up the game for them. McCoy and Motie were the pick of the bowlers for the hosts. Rassie and Mulder played well to take South Africa to a respectable total but it proved to be under-par against a powerful West Indies batting line-up. Johnson Charles took his side off to a flier as he went berserk from the get-go.
Johnson Charles scored a blistering fifty off just 20 balls and that almost killed the game. The hard-hitting opener Johnson Charles fell against the run of play but King took over from there and played some big shots. The West Indian skipper also perished in a bid to finish the game early. But, Mayers hit a few lusty blows at the fag end to take his side over the finish line with 37 balls to spare.
West Indies swept the three-T20I series against South Africa to conclude their T20 World Cup preparations in the most commanding way possible. South Africa, on the other hand, have won just two of their last 11 completed T20I matches since the last T20 World Cup, and have lost series to West Indies twice and Australia once, and enter the global competition on the back foot.
If there’s any consolation, it’s that none of South Africa’s powerhouse middle order of Aiden Markram, Heinrich Klaasen, David Miller and Tristan Stubbs were part of this series, but all will return for the World Cup. Still, there remain concerns over Quinton de Kock, who scored 64 runs in three innings and didn’t have a good time of it at the BBL, the SA20 and the IPL earlier, while also appearing to pick up a back injury on Sunday; and Ryan Rickelton, who managed only 43 runs in three innings.
Equally, Anrich Nortje’s economy rate of 12.16 through the series and the absence of any wickets to his name raises questions over his readiness for international cricket after an almost-nine-month absence following a lower-back stress fracture. But he is part of South Africa’s final squad for the World Cup.
West Indies head to Trinidad to play Australia in a warm-up match before their first World Cup match in Guyana, and they appear as ready as they can be. They have won four out of five series since the last T20 World Cup, and beat South Africa 3-0 for the first time in this one. After defending totals of 175 and 207 to win the series, they were made to chase and hunted down 164 inside 14 overs to ease past South Africa again.
Obed McCoy, added to the T20 World Cup squad in place of the injured Jason Holder, was the most successful bowler in the final match with 3 for 39, while stand-in captain Brandon King finished as the series’ leading run-scorer. The West Indies were brilliant throughout the series and are the deserved winners. South Africa couldn’t adapt to the conditions properly and were found wanting. The West Indies will be heading into the T20 World Cup with lots of confidence. The mega event is less than a week away and we all are waiting in anticipation.