DURBAN, South Africa, CMC – West Indies failed to negotiate a tricky run chase and lost the rain-hit opening One-day International against South Africa by 61 runs under the Duckworth/Lewis method here today.
Needing to score at nearly seven runs an over to get a revised target of 229 off 33 overs, West Indies faltered after an enterprising 51-run opening stand, to slump to 164 off 28.2 overs at Kingsmead.
Shotgun opener Chris Gayle blasted a typically swift top score of 41 off 24 deliveries, Denesh Ramdin hit 31 from 32 balls and Gayle’s opening partner Dwayne Smith chipped in with 29 off 38 balls, but the Caribbean side lost their last nine wickets for 113 runs.
Fast bowler Vernon Philander was South Africa’s leading bowler with three for 44 while leg-spinner Imran Tahir picked up two for 22.
Rain had earlier stymied South Africa’s efforts to reach the 300-run mark, ending the innings on 279 for eight off 48.2 overs.
Captain AB de Villiers top scored with 81 off 94 balls, while David Miller, with 70 off 68 and opener Hashim Amla, with a run-a-ball 66, chipped in with half-centuries.
The Proteas were reeling at 16 for two in the fifth over before de Villiers anchored two excellent stands to pull the innings around.
He put on 99 for the third wicket with Amla and added a further 123 with Miller for the fourth wicket.
Rollicking along at 238 for three in the 40th over, South Africa seemed on course for well beyond 300 but West Indies pulled the scoring back to limit the hosts to just 37 runs from the next nine overs.
Captain Jason Holder rotated his bowlers well down the stretch, and South Africa lost five wickets for 61 runs, including the wickets for Miller and de Villiers who had earlier punished them.
Fast bowler Jerome Taylor grabbed two for 50 and fellow seamer Andre Russell, two for 51.
Things were rosy in the West Indies camp when Taylor bowled Rilee Rossouw without scoring with a full length delivery in the third over and then trapped Faf du Plessis lbw, also without scoring, in his next over with one that came back.
De Villiers then stroked six fours and Amla, ten, as they repaired the innings, in a stand that brought South Africa runs at the rate of six per over.
Amla perished in the 20th over when he took on Russell’s arm from third man chancing a second run but failing to beat the throw, but Miller joined de Villiers to keep pressure on the Windies.
He slammed seven fours and two sixes – both coming off left-arm spinner Sulieman Benn – and eventually reached his half-century off as many balls.
De Villiers had earlier reached his off 61 balls but once he and Miller fell in successive overs to leave the score on 246 for five in the 41st over, the innings declined.
Gayle gave the Windies a flying start, attacking with sixes off Philander and seamer Morne Morkel in the early stages, as West Indies gathered 43 runs off the first five overs.
The left-hander had added five fours to his boundary count when he edged a swing at Steyn behind to depart in the sixth over.
Left-hander Leon Johnson was lbw to Philander on review without scoring in the next over with two runs added but Smith and Marlon Samuels (12) held up South Africa with a promising 32-run, third wicket partnership.
Samuels, however, gifted his wicket on 85 for two in the 13th over when he ventured out of his crease at the non-striker’s end with thoughts of a single and failed to beat Farhaan Behardien’s throw from mid-off, in his attempt to get back.
It all went quickly downhill. Smith’s 38-ball labour ended with an lbw decision in favour of Imran Tahir two overs later and debutant left-hander Jonathan Carter stroked three fours in 17 off 26 balls before being deceived by the leg-spinner’s googly and going stumped in the 21st over.
With the run rate creeping up to 10 an over, hefty blows were required but the Windies big hitters could provide none.
Darren Sammy edged a cut at Philander behind for four, Russell (12) lofted two successive sixes in Philander’s next over before edging the following delivery to the wicketkeeper and the Windies hopes expired when Ramdin missed a heave at Imran Tahir and was bowled in the 27th over.