CENTURION – Dale Steyn rocketed to his 25th five-wicket haul in Tests to finish off the West Indies yesterday as South Africa won the first Test by an innings and 220 runs on the fourth morning at Centurion.
Steyn went wicketless in the first innings and limped off the field five deliveries into the second on Friday evening, but returned on the fourth morning to pick up 6 for 34 and bowl the West Indies out for 131.
The West Indies began the day on 76-2 following on, still trailing South Africa by 275 runs, and Steyn quickly broke the back of the innings as he picked up four wickets in 16 deliveries.Top-scorer Leon Johnson was the first to go when he edged Steyn through to wicketkeeper A.B. de Villiers on 39, before Shivnarine Chanderpaul suffered the same fate in Steyn’s next over.
Two overs later Steyn had Marlon Samuels caught at cover for 17 and then induced an edge from Denesh Ramdin, who was brilliantly caught by a diving de Villiers.
Morne Morkel dismissed Jermaine Blackwood for 15 to take his second wicket in the innings and fifth in the match, before Steyn grabbed the final two wickets to give South Africa a huge win.
Fast bowler Kemar Roach was unable to bat for the West Indies in the first innings, when the team posted 201, and his ankle injury once again prevented him from batting yesterday.
West Indies captain Denesh Ramdin easily recognised his side’s weaknesses in the post-match Press conference.
“The first couple wickets we got on the first morning the guys got caught behind. If we look back now we can see we bowled too short to AB [de Villiers] and Hashim [Amla] who scored many runs square of the wicket,” he said after the humiliating defeat.
“We know they’re a very good bowling line-up and we shouldn’t have given them any opportunities.
“We need to be more disciplined in the batting department – not go after wide balls, be smart,” Ramdin said.
“We need to bat for longer sessions.
It’s important for guys that get starts to carry on and get a big hundred. No one did that.
“Hopefully after this game we can refocus and in Port Elizabeth, create some chances,” he said.
“We’ll take the positives from this game and the memories of our last win in Port Elizabeth, but having said that cricket is played on the day.”
Steyn described the outfield as being “like running on sea sand” and joked that the quicks “did all the cricket” on the third day because the ball was being hit to them more frequently than usual.
“I was telling these guys that the slips just stood there,” Steyn jested, before remembering. “Except for Alviro, he took some great catches. And you also took a good catch,” he said to skipper Hashim Amla before turning serious. “We’ve got some good hands and it’s a big place to field. My back would be broken if I had to bend down like that all day.”
Amla was named Man Of The Match for his 208, which allowed South Africa
to recover from 57-3 on the first morning and post 552-5 declared in its innings.
The only bad news for South Africa was that Quinton de Kock will miss the rest of the series and could be out of action for six to eight weeks after rolling his ankle during warm-ups on the third morning. (AP)
