Watch cricket video highlights of South Africa of West Indies 2024 first twenty/20i between West Indies vs South Africa. Venue of the match will be Tarouba.
As soon as Rovman Powell declared that South Africa will bat first in the opening Twenty20 International, a downpour of rain hit the Brian Lara Academy, postponing the start of play. Kwena Maphaka will thus have to wait to deliver his debut delivery in an international cricket match. After former selection chairman Victor Mpitsang, who was 18 years and 314 days when he played his first international in 1999, Maphaka is the youngest debutant in South Africa at 18 years and 137 days.
Lungi Ngidi’s right calf injury kept him out of the series, setting up Maphaka’s debut. Ngidi will play all three of the games, which end on Tuesday, with the squad. Reeza Hendricks and Rassie van der Dussen were positioned at No. 5 and No. 6 respectively, with Ryan Rickelton opening the batting for South Africa in an unconventional lineup. All-around alternatives were offered by Donovan Ferreria and Patrick Kruger, who selected three seamers and a specialist spinner in Bjorn Fortuin.
Powell referred the West Indies’ lineup as “normal West Indies combination,” which included of six batters: two spinners, three seamers, Alick Athanaze to start, and Shai Hope. Obed McCoy, the team’s senior seamer, was favored over Shamar Joseph and Matthew Forde. Akeal Hosein and Gudakesh Motie comprise the spin assault. In the first of three games to be played at the Brian Lara Academy in Tarouba, West Indies pulled off the most successful chase in T20 history to take the lead in the series against South Africa.
Just before intense rain caused the game to be delayed by an hour, West Indies elected to bowl first, and after eight overs, they had South Africa at 42 for 5, they were in charge. They rallied when Patrick Kruger and Tristan Stubbs put on a sixth-wicket stand of 71 runs off 50 balls, and Stubbs and Bjorn Fortuin added a much-needed impetus to the batting with a seventh-wicket stand of 60 off 25 balls. In his third Twenty20 International, Matthew Forde equaled his best-ever career stats of 3 for 27.
West Indies, in turn, constantly maintained the initiative in the chase. Before Hope and Nicholas Pooran’s 54-run partnership, off 33 balls, broke the back of the target, Shai Hope and Alick Athanaze put on 84 in 49 balls for the first stand. Against a young South African assault, Pooran was especially harsh, scoring his quickest T20I fifty (from 20 balls) and finishing undefeated on 65 off 26. South Africa’s depth was put to the test without the focal point of their assault, particularly after Lungi Ngidi was declared out of the series due to a calf issue before to kickoff.
Kwena Maphaka, who is eighteen years and 137 days old, was their youngest-ever debutant when he was deployed, and he grabbed his maiden international wicket when he had West Indian skipper Rovman Powell caught at extra cover. By that point, Roston Chase’s four off the following ball put the finishing touches on a victory that required just three runs for West Indies. With 13 balls remaining, West Indies prevailed in the game.
After an outstanding first over of three runs from Akeal Hosein, Powell’s choice to bowl first paid off almost immediately as Forde made the initial cut: Ryan Rickelton reached to cut a short, wide ball and toe-ended to Pooran. After countering with a powerful reverse sweep to remove Hosein, Aiden Markram struck Forde squarely to Gudakesh Motie at mid-on. After two balls, Hosein was given a wretched run for the first wicket as Reeza Hendricks got a leading edge on Shamar Joseph’s opening delivery, which swirled to him at deep third.
Only two of Hendricks’ previous 11 T20I innings have seen him reach 20 or more. Despite their powerplay, South Africa faltered and finished at 33 for 3. As soon as the fielding limits were restored, Joseph scored his second goal and Rassie van der Dussen was strangled down leg. After eight overs, South Africa was struggling at 42 for 5, with all of their recognized batsmen—aside from Stubbs—back in the dugout.
Stubbs scored just 13 runs off his first 16 balls, acting erratically at beginning. When he hit Motie for the largest six of the innings, he signaled his intentions early on, but Stubbs didn’t take over until after Kruger’s innings was completed. He took full deliveries from Forde for consecutive fours each side of the wicket, and when he drove Joseph over cover point, he scored fifty off 33 balls.
He was going for six more when he holed out to long-on on the last delivery of the innings, having scored 23 runs off the last six balls he faced. However, he had given his bowlers enough to defend with 174 on the board. When the West Indies finally got their first boundary, it took 10 deliveries, but once they did, everything opened up. In his second Twenty20 international, Athanaze opened the batting and swept Fortuin over long leg.
Hope then fell victim to Ottneil Baartman’s long-off and deep-backward square-leg blows, but the main damage was done in the fifth over. With two sixes over deep square-leg and a stunning late cut that went for four, Athanaze hammered Nandre Burger for twenty runs, forcing South Africa to switch to a fifth bowler during the powerplay. Even more costly, Aiden Markram went for 21 after bowling himself.
West Indies completed a stunning 75-run powerplay with 16 runs off three balls, two of them coming from down-on-one-knee sixes over long-on and long-off. The next two balls were faster and still full and Pooran had his eye in. He hit Burger down the ground for two more sixes to take the equation down to 45 off 48 balls. West Indies lost a couple of wickets but reached the target comfortably in the end.
When Burger returned in the twelfth over, Pooran sensed an opportunity to put an immediate stop to the situation, with 70 runs off 54 balls needed to win. Burger attempted a slower ball to Pooran after Hope got off to a good start. Pooran had plenty of time to knock the ball straight over long-off for a 77-meter six. Burger’s subsequent delivery was also pace-off; it turned out to be a full toss, which Pooran assisted in getting beyond midwicket and into the bleachers.
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