Narine leads Windies to big victory over Proteas
West Indian spinner Sunil Narine claimed career best figures of 6/27 to bowl his side to a four-wicket victory over South Africa in their opening Tri-Nation match at Providence Stadium, in Guyana, on Friday.
After winning the toss and choosing to bat on a slow turning deck, the Proteas were blown away by Narine’s exploits as the visitors were bowled out for 188 in 46.5 overs. Narine struck all the major blows for the home team as he claimed the scalps of Hashim Amla, Rilee Rossouw and Farhaan Behardien before adding three wickets from the lower order to his tally for a six-wicket haul.
Despite the hosts coming out in pursuit of their target in rather sedate fashion, the victory for the West Indies always seemed assured. Even after the West Indies fell to 76/4 after 25.3 overs, any innings of substance from one of their batsmen would have finished the match as a contest.
Up stepped Kieron Pollard, and got off the mark with a six down the ground off Proteas spinner Aaron Phangiso. That set the tone for his knock, as Pollard continued to deal in maximums on his way to 67 from 67 balls including 6 sixes and 2 fours as the West Indies eased to 191/6 to win with 11 balls to spare.
For his efforts, Phangiso claimed career-best figures on the night for the Proteas with 3/40.
In the South African innings, despite the low and slow pitch which played into the hands of the slow bowlers, Proteas openers Quinton de Kock (30) and Amla (20) got off to a good start as South Africa reached 52 for no wicket in the 10th over.
But a double-strike from the West Indies pegged the South African innings back. Amla was the first victim of Narine as he played across the line and was trapped lbw. Top-scorer Rossouw (61 runs from 83 balls) coming in at three combined well with captain AB de Villiers (31) to put on 78 for the third wicket. Though the pair looked composed in their strokeplay, scoring was slow during the middle overs as they scored at 3.78 during their stand.
Once De Villiers fell, chipped back to Jerome Taylor for a caught and bowled, the Proteas began to lose wickets regularly. With an extended tail and nothing much coming from the Proteas middle to lower order, the last seven wickets fell for 28 runs and their lowest total against the West Indies in an ODI since 1992.