Opener Dean Elgar hit an unbeaten 60 as South Africa coasted to a comfortable eight-wicket win over West Indies in the last Test at Newlands in Cape Town yesterday, winning the three-match series 2-0 and retaining their ranking as the top side in Tests.
Elgar and captain Hashim Amla (38 not out) saw South Africa home as they reached 124-2 wickets before lunch on the final day to secure the victory.
“It is good to still be the No. 1 Test team, but it’s not really about the ranking. It needs to be about being a winning team for a long time,” Amla said.
Photo: AFP
South Africa were 9-1 overnight and showed no hurry to knock off the remaining 115 runs they needed to win. The first 44 deliveries of the day failed to produce any runs before Elgar finally stroked a boundary off Jerome Taylor to break the stranglehold.
Faf du Plessis was out for 14 just after the first hour, handing Sulieman Benn a second wicket of the innings after the spinner bowled opener Aviro Petersen with the last ball on Monday. The tall, left-arm spinner toiled for 16 successive overs yesterday to finish with figures of 2-24.
The win added to South Africa’s victory by an innings and 220 runs in the first Test in Pretoria. The second test in Port Elizabeth was a rain-affected draw.
Photo: AFP
Rain also threatened to play a role in the final Test, as half of the fourth day was lost to bad weather, offering the West Indies a chance to create a contest after clawing back from a 92-run first innings deficit.
Their resistance crumbled after Marlon Samuels lost his wicket at 182-4 in the second innings on Monday, out for 74 to an injudicious slog that saw him caught on the boundary.
It precipitated a collapse, as their next six wickets went for a paltry 33 runs as they were dismissed for 215, leaving South Africa a modest target of 124 to win.
“He could have gone on and made a real difference,” Windies captain Denesh Ramdin said of Samuel’s rash dismissal. “We needed at least 70 more runs to be comfortable and make a game of it on the last day.”
Immediately after South Africa’s win, Petersen announced his retirement from international cricket.
Petersen, 34, said he wanted “to move on with his career” and plans to play county cricket and for the Johannesburg-based Lions for the next three years.
He played 36 Tests from 2010, scoring 2,093 runs at an average of 34.88 with five centuries, but has struggled for form recently.
“The last couple of months were really frustrating, as I felt my form was there, but I would like to have scored more runs,” he told a news conference.
BOUNCE BACK: Curry scored 46 points in the Warriors’ victory over the Spurs, after ‘everybody stepped up’ following Tuesday’s blowout loss to Oklahoma City Nikola Jokic scoring 50 or more points had never been enough for the Denver Nuggets to win — until now. Jokic on Wednesday night tied the highest-scoring performance in the NBA this season with 55 points, as the Nuggets beat the Los Angeles Clippers 130-116 for their sixth straight victory. The Nuggets were 0-4 in his previous 50-point outbursts. “It’s a good feeling,” the three-time NBA Most Valuable Player said. He equaled Oklahoma City Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who had 55 in a double-overtime game at the Indiana Pacers on Oct. 23. Jokic has been on a roll during Denver’s winning streak. He is the
TIGHT GAME: The Detroit Pistons, the NBA’s second-best team, barely outlasted the Washington Wizards, who fell to an NBA-worst 1-10 with their ninth consecutive loss Cade Cunningham’s triple double, Daniss Jenkins’ three-pointer at the buzzer and Javonte Green’s overtime dunk lifted Detroit past Washington 137-135 on Monday, stretching the Pistons’ win streak to seven games. In an unexpected thriller, the NBA’s second-best team barely outlasted a Wizards club that fell to an NBA-worst 1-10 with their ninth consecutive loss. “We knew how big this game was for us,” Jenkins said. “We wasn’t going to let nothing stop us from getting this W.” Cunningham made 14-of-45 shots and 16-of-18 free throws for a career-high 46 points, and added 12 rebounds, 11 assists, five steals and two
The tri-nation Twenty20 international series featuring hosts Pakistan, as well as Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe, is to be played entirely in Rawalpindi from Tuesday next week, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) said yesterday, after this week’s suicide bombing in the capital, Islamabad. The change came after at least eight Sri Lankan players asked to leave over security fears following Tuesday’s bombing that killed 12 people and wounded 27. Their country’s cricket board issued a stern directive to the team to stay put or face consequences. Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) said the decision to stay was taken after “close consultations” with hosts Pakistan who
Australian restaurant chain Grill’d has made a cheeky apology for putting a “curse” on Oscar Piastri’s Formula One title hopes with their offer of a free burger for every time the McLaren driver gets on the podium. The Melbourne native has not finished in the top three since the promotion relaunched five races ago, losing the championship lead to teammate Lando Norris and now 24 points behind. Online conspiracy theorists have been quick to put two and two together. The chain’s Piastri 81 Burger debuted ahead of the Australian Grand Prix in March, with his endorsement, and was relaunched in September after he
RSS