Tahir puts WI in a spin
Vinode Mamchan
Published: Guardian
Thursday, June 16, 2016
West Indies crashed to a 139-run defeat at the hands of South Africa in their fourth match of the Ballr Tri-Series at Warner Park in St. Kitts last night, leaving them under pressure as they head to Barbados for the final leg.
After Hashim Amla’s 110 and Faf du Plessis’ 73 not out had taken South Africa to a massive 343 for four of their 50 overs, the West Indies were just not up for the fight and meekly surrendered to leg spinner Imran Tahir, who grabbed seven wickets, as they fell for 204.
Although West Indies lost, they head to Barbados this morning still in with a chance of making the finals. The series is nicely poised with West Indies, South Africa and Australia, all having two wins heading into the final round. South Africa leads the standings with 10 points, followed by Australia nine and West Indies eight.
Chasing 344, West Indies got a good start from Johnson Charles and Andre Fletcher who cracked 69 runs in nine overs. However, the introduction of spin ended their reign. Fletcher fell to Imran Tahir for 21 and Charles to left arm chinaman and googly bowler Tabraiz Shamsi for 49 of 41 balls with seven fours and a six.
Tahir also removed Marlon Samuels (24), star in the last match against Australia to become the fastest South African to 100 ODI wickets. He got to the milestone in 58 matches, five more than former Pakistani off-spinner Saqlain Mushtaq who got there in 53 matches.
He would go on to return his best and the best ever figures for South Africa in ODIs figures of 7/45 - as he outdone most of the West Indians with the googlies.
Earlier, the West Indies won the toss and sent South Africa in. However, South African openers Amla and de Kock batted beautifully on an excellent batting pitch and with the hard ball coming on nicely, shot making was not an issue.
The first powerplay brought 52 runs and even after the field was spread, the two continued to pick of runs easily. They brought up the 100-run partnership of 103 balls and what was odd was the fact that it did not contain an extra. Amla motored on to his 23rd ODI century of just 89 balls with 11 hits to the fence and when he finally left for 110 the scoreboard read 182 in the 34th over.
The man from Durban had set the stage for an onslaught. His partner de Kock followed in the next over for 71 of 103 balls with six fours but this did not stop the run flow.
All rounder Chris Morris promoted to number three slashed 40 of 26 balls with two fours and two sixes and later, Faf du Plessis played a brilliant hand of 73 not out. Even off-colour skipper AB de Villiers got a good hit in counting 27 of 19 balls with a four and two sixes.
With du Plessis red hot, and the others willing to lend willow to leather, the South Africans creamed 105 runs from the final 10 overs of the innings. The right handed du Plessis faced 50 balls, hitting two over the fence and six over the ropes.
SCOREBOARD
West Indies vs South Africa
H Amla c Narine b Pollard 110
Q de Kock b Taylor 71
C Morris c sub Carter b Brathwaite 40
F du Plessis not out 73
AB de Villiers c Charles b Pollard 27
J P Duminy not out 10
Extras 4b, 4w, 2lb, 2nb 12
Total for 4 wkts (50ovs) 343
Fall of wkts: 182, 185, 245, 309.
Bowling: J Taylor 8-0-72-1, J Holder 6-0-51-0, S Narine 10-0-46-0, C Brathwaite 10-0-69-1, S Benn 7-0-35-0, K Pollard 9-0-64-2.
WI Inns
A Fletcher c Behardein b Tahir 21
J Charles c du Plessis b Shamsi 49
D Bravo b Parnell 11
M Samuels c de Kock b Tahir 24
D Ramdin c Morris b Shamsi 11
K Pollard c Behardein b Tahir 20
J Holder lbw Tahir 19
C Brathwaite b Tahir 0
S Narine not out 18
S Benn c Shamsi b Tahir 0
J Taylor b Tahir 16
Extras 10w, 2lb, 2nb, 1b 15
Total all out (37.5ovs) 204
Fall of wkts: 69, 82, 90, 121, 125, 169, 169, 170, 182,
Bowling: W Parnell 6-0-43-1, K Rabada 7-0-46-0, I Tahir 9-0-45-7, C Morris 7-0-26-0, T Shamsi 9-0-41-2.
Result: South Africa won by 139 runs.
South Africa 5 pts.
West Indies 0
