Stand-in wicketkeeper Morne van Wyk hit a maiden international century to set up a 69-run consolation win for South Africa in the third and final Twenty20 international against the West Indies at Kingsmead, Durban, on Wednesday.
Van Wyk, 35, who was recalled to the South Africa team because of an injury to Quinton de Kock, scored 114 not out off 70 balls with seven sixes and nine fours.
South Africa made 195-3 after being sent in.
The West Indies, who had already clinched the series by winning the first two matches, were bowled out for 126 in 19 overs.
With the West Indies holding an unassailable lead in the series, both sides made several changes.
Notable absentees were Chris Gayle of the West Indies, man of the match in the first two games, because of a back injury and South Africa captain Faf du Plessis, who was being rested ahead of a one-day international series.
Big-hitting David Miller was also missing because of back spasms.
Chasing a challenging target on a pitch which offered more to the bowlers than at the Wanderers when they succeeded with a world-record run chase, the West Indies succumbed to a series of over-ambitious shots.
Lendl Simmons, in his only match of the series, hit 49 off 31 balls, but the next highest score was Kieron Pollard’s 20 not out.
Medium-pacer David Wiese, mixing up his pace and lengths shrewdly, took five for 23.
West Indies captain Darren Sammy said he was delighted with the attitude of the players during the series.
“I commend the way the boys played this series. Today we wanted to win, but we’ll take a series win,” Sammy said.
Justin Ontong, who took over as South Africa captain for Du Plessis, said the players had been determined to prevent a whitewash.
“We wanted it more. We let ourselves down in the first two games. We were hungry tonight,” Ontong said.
Van Wyk was named man of the match and Gayle, who hit 77 off 31 balls and 90 off 41 balls in the first two matches, was named man of the series.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier