At last it was competitive. After three one-sided matches in a series that was decided before this game began, there was a thriller in Port Elizabeth as Andre Russell carried West Indies over the line for a one-wicket victory.
It provided Jason Holder his first victory in charge of West Indies’ and it came in a manner he will not forget. His attack restricted South Africa to a reasonable score by getting into their middle-order early and then cancelled out David Miller’s maiden ODI century with fifties from Marlon Samuels, Darren Sammy and Russell, who held his nerve when the pressure could have reached breaking point at the end with wickets falling regularly.
Russell struck three sixes off his last eight balls, with No.11 Sheldon Cottrell for company, to seal the one-wicket victory after being reprieved by the DRS after being given out caught behind.
Earlier, it’s not even the end of January but Darren Sammy was crowned St George’s Park Dance Champion of 2015 and that’s not the only thing West Indies had to celebrate. They turned in their most disciplined and incisive bowling performance of the series so far and restricted South Africa to 262 for 8 with only David Miller’s century standing between them and complete dominance.
Miller’s first hundred in this format came in his 62nd match and held together a South Africa innings depleted by a makeshift opening pair and still struggling with a soft underbelly. His 130 was the highest score by a South African No. 5 in ODIs and demonstrated his own development from being solely a big-hitting finisher to being able to blend that with providing a steadying presence in the line-up.
As testament to that, Miller ground out a century from 122 balls after being called to the crease in the seventh over. Then, his last 30 runs came off just 11 deliveries as he blasted South Africa above 250. West Indies may not have minded that too much. Jason Holder – who delivered a double-wicket last over and conceded just two – Andre Russell, Darren Sammy and Carlos Brathwaite showed good control while debutant Sheldon Cottrell seemed to have the stomach for the big stage.
Cottrell found both the right line and length – full and just outside off – and a hint of movement from the outset and it did not take too long before he has rewarded. In his second over, he had Rilee Rossouw pushing at a full delivery and induced the edge. It seemed to be dying on Chris Gayle at first slip so Darren Sammy dived across and held on to leave South Africa’s makeshift opener’s record patchy in the position.
West Indies were immediately lifted by that commitment and Denesh Ramdin went one better and flung himself rightwards to take a one-handed catch low-down to dismiss Faf du Plessis off Jason Holder. Two balls later, the wicketkeeper hurled himself in front of Gayle to take another stunning catch and end Morne van Wyk’s time at the crease.
For the first time in the series, West Indies exposed South Africa’s middle-order early and threatened to take full advantage of that when AB de Villiers offered Darren Sammy a return catch when he was on 6. It was a tough overhead chance and Sammy got hands to it but could not hold on.
Luckily for West Indies, that did not cost them as much as it could have. De Villiers added just 13 runs to score before inside-edging off an Andre Russell delivery and giving Ramdin his third catch of the morning. At 76 for 4 in the first 15 overs, South Africa’s real test started.
For the next 20 overs, Miller and Duminy had to build a partnership against the backdrop of a short ball barrage from Carlos Brathwaite and Russell and the beginnings of a squeeze from Marlon Samuels. Brathwaite found Miller’s inside-edge, Russell hit Duminy on the helmet and Samuels managed a touch of turn. Only occasionally did they offer a bit of width or miss their lengths. Sammy and Chris Gayle kept the pressure on and run scoring was much more difficult than it had been in the previous three matches.The Powerplay gave South Africa nothing either but took Duminy away. He was foxed by a Sammy slower ball and chipped one back to him. This time, Sammy made no mistake with an outstretched right hand. West Indies conceded just 22 runs in the five-over period and had burrowed into South Africa.
Farhaan Behardien battled for 26 deliveries before losing his offstump to Holder while Wayne Parnell and Aaron Phangiso were victims of the yorker and the cutter, in successive balls, from the West Indian captain. Only Miller did not succumb to any of that. He had done the hard work, the waiting for the occasional bit of width to drive, short ball to pull or low full toss to bat away, he had rotated the strike with caution and then, after reaching a milestone he has gone five years as an international cricketer without, he celebrated.
He slammed Holder past extra cover and over long-off for the first six of the innings in the 48th over, hit Russell over long-on, through square leg and over cover in the 49th but only saw one ball in the final over and could not get South Africa any closer to the 280-odd they may have considered par.
South Africa
MN van Wyk c †Ramdin b Cottrell 18
RR Rossouw c Sammy b Cottrell 4
F du Plessis c †Ramdin b Holder 4
AB de Villiers c †Ramdin b Russell 19
DA Miller not out 130
JP Duminy c & b Sammy 43
F Behardien b Holder 12
WD Parnell b Holder 12
AM Phangiso c Johnson b Holder 0
KJ Abbott not out 1
Extras (lb 2, w 17) 19
Total (8 wickets; 50 overs; 223 mins) 262
Did not batM Morkel
Fall of wickets 1-18 (Rossouw, 2.2 ov), 2-32 (du Plessis, 5.6 ov), 3-32 (van Wyk, 6.2 ov), 4-76 (de Villiers, 14.4 ov), 5-166 (Duminy, 36.4 ov), 6-196 (Behardien, 42.1 ov), 7-259 (Parnell, 49.2 ov), 8-259 (Phangiso, 49.3 ov)
Bowling
SS Cottrell 6-0-39-2, JO Holder 10-1-53-4, AD Russell 10-1-60-1, DJG Sammy 10-1-46-1, CR Brathwaite 10-1-39-0, MN Samuels 3-0-19-0, CH Gayle 1-0-4-0
West Indies
DR Smith b Morkel 0
CH Gayle c Behardien b Duminy 10
LR Johnson run out (de Villiers/†van Wyk) 18
MN Samuels b Behardien 68
D Ramdin lbw b Behardien 3
JL Carter run out (Miller/Duminy) 5
DJG Sammy c de Villiers b Parnell 51
AD Russell not out 64
JO Holder c Miller b Duminy 13
CR Brathwaite run out (de Villiers/†van Wyk) 11
SS Cottrell not out 1
Extras (b 4, lb 3, w 14, nb 1) 22
Total (9 wickets; 48.3 overs; 227 mins) 266
Fall of wickets 1-0 (Smith, 0.3 ov), 2-12 (Gayle, 6.1 ov), 3-41 (Johnson, 13.5 ov), 4-48 (Ramdin, 15.5 ov), 5-73 (Carter, 20.5 ov), 6-166 (Sammy, 36.1 ov), 7-189 (Samuels, 39.2 ov), 8-218 (Holder, 42.6 ov), 9-239 (Brathwaite, 47.1 ov)
Bowling
M Morkel 9-1-58-1, KJ Abbott 9.3-1-62-0, JP Duminy 6-0-29-2, AM Phangiso 10-1-41-0, WD Parnell 10-0-48-1, F Behardien 4-0-21-2
MATCH DETAILS
Toss – West Indies, who chose to field
Series – South Africa led the 5-match series 3-1
ODI debut – SS Cottrell (West Indies)
Player of the match – AD Russell (West Indies)
Umpires – SJ Davis (Australia) and S George
TV umpire – S Ravi (India)
Match referee – BC Broad (England)
Reserve umpire – JD Cloete
