Tri Series 2016, Match 6: West Indies v South Africa – 5 Talking Points

A 7-wicket haul from Imran Tahir and a brilliant hundred from Hashim Amla saw West Indies lose the match to South Africa by 139 runs after winning the toss and putting the opposition into bat first. West Indies lost their last five wickets for 35 runs and were bowled out in 38 overs as the tri-series heads into the final leg with everything to play for.

1. Platform set by the openers:

South African opening batsmen Amla and Quinton de Cock gave Proteas the best possible start with an opening stand of 182 runs. Both of them took time early on to settle down, but once they got in, they made the most out of it. De Cock was severe on the back-foot, cutting and pulling anything that was short of the length.

The duo played lot sensibly especially against Sunil Narine, where they just tried to rotate the strike. Amla went on to score 110 off 99 deliveries and de Cock scored 71 off 103 balls. The duo took the team total to 100 in just 103 balls and 150 in 160 balls, setting the platform for a huge score.

2. Amla’s Ton:

Amla started cautiously in the first 3-4 overs but was quick to change his gears and played some beautiful cover drives early on in his innings. West Indies over adjusted for that and bowled on the stumps and he started to flick onto the leg-side boundary.

How did Twitter react to the game? – Twitter Reaction: Imran Tahir and Amla smash records as Proteas thrash Windies

The 33-year old reached his 100 off just 89 balls and went on to score 110 off 99 balls with 13 boundaries. Amla was dismissed while trying to clear the ropes off the bowling of Kieron Pollard and ended up in the hands of Narine at long-off.

3. Finishing on a high:

South Africa scored 147 runs in the last 15 overs. After the brilliant start the openers had given, they promoted big-hitting all-rounder Chris Morris up the order and he made a valuable contribution of 40 runs from 29 balls where he clobbered 2 fours and 2 sixes. He was generally targeting the wide mid-on and mid-wicket region and got out while trying to hit a six in the same region against a leg-cutter from Carlos Brathwaite.

AB de Villiers, after hitting 27 runs from 19 balls was also dismissed in the same fashion caught at long-on off the bowling of Pollard. Faf du Plessis played well for a quick-fire 73 off 50 balls with 6 fours and 2 sixes. Du Plessis remained not out along with JP Duminy, who just got 5 balls to play and scored 10 runs with a six.

Stats and records – Tri Series 2016, 6th ODI: West Indies v South Africa – Statistical Highlights

4. Decent start to the chase:

With 344 to win, Andre Fletcher and Johnson Charles gave Windies the right kind of start. They brought 50 runs opening stand from just 5.1 overs. The duo added 69 runs for the first wicket within 9 overs. Charles was the aggressor of the two, who started off the innings with 2 fours in the first over. South African bowlers were bowling a bit short of the length early on, and he made full use of that scoring boundaries through the point region and with some shots in front of the square-leg.

Fletcher who was predominantly working everything on the on-side scored 21 runs and Charles got out 1-run short of his half-century.

Also read – Looking forward for the challenges against Australia: Imran Tahir

5. Tahir show:

With the opening partnership, Windies looked in contention in the chase and that is where Imran Tahir was introduced in the 7th over of the match and he concedes just 2 runs; it was the first boundary-less over of the innings at that point. In his next over, he broke the partnership with the wicket of Fletcher, who ended up in the hands of Behardien at deep mid-wicket.

In his second spell, he dismissed the hero of the previous match, Marlon Samuels who got a thick outside edge, which was safely collected by de Cock. With this wicket, Tahir became the fastest South African to claim 100 ODI wickets and the fourth-fastest overall. In the 34th over of the match, he picked up wickets of Jason Holder, Brathwaite, and Pollard to end the hopes of the home team. In his next two overs, he sent Sulieman Benn and Jerome Taylor back to the pavilion and with that he had his best bowling figures in ODI internationals of 7/45.