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West Indies came out victorious in the third and final T20I of the series against South Africa. Shimron Hetmyer, Shai Hope and Gudakesh Motie were among the star performers as the Windies racked up a crucial win before the T20 World Cup. However, the win proved to be a mere consolation as the Proteas had already sealed the series by winning the first two matches.
The third T20I was a match marred by rain and it even saw prolonged delays due to lightning. After being invited to bat first, West Indies started their innings 75 minutes later than the scheduled start. The match had already been reduced to 16 overs a side by that time. The Windies had a poor start as Johnson Charles lost his wicket in the very first over to Lungi Ngidi.
With not a lot of overs being on their side, West Indies decided to send Shimron Hetmyer to bat at No.3. He formed a massive partnership with Hope and the duo dominated over the opposing bowlers. Both the batters looked to be in great touch, but the play soon got delayed for another hour and the overs got reduced to 10 for each side.
West Indies post fighting total on the board
After the play resumed, experienced spinner Keshav Maharaj got the important breakthrough for the hosts and dismissed Hope for 48 runs in the eighth over. The wicket would leave West Indies on 91/2 with 13 deliveries left in their innings. Hetmyer would eventually remain unbeaten on 48 while an impactful cameo of 13 by Rovman Powell would see the visitors finish their 10 overs on 114/3. South Africa's target got adjusted up to 125 using DLS method.
In reply, the Proteas also had a wobbly start and lost skipper Aiden Markram in the second over for just two runs. Motie would then get the wicket of the in-form Quinton de Kock in the fourth over for 28 runs. A 28-run partnership between Dewald Brevis and Ryan Rickelton seemed to get their ship back on track, but both of them would lose their wickets to Motie in the sixth over.
South Africa fall short by a whisker
Cameos of 17 and 26 from George Linde and Jason Smith respectively kept the hosts in contention, but they would eventually get restricted down to 118/6 after the end of 10 overs and would lose the match by six runs. Motie was the pick of the bowlers for West Indies, recording figures of 3/17 in two overs while the likes of Jason Holder, Akeal Hosein and Shamar Joseph also picked up a wicket each.
With the T20I series done and dusted, the two teams will now be shifting their focus to the T20 World Cup that is set to commence from February 7. While West Indies will begin their campaign with the clash against Scotland on February 7. South Africa will play Canada in their opening game of the tournament on February 9.
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