WEST INDIES won the toss and nothing else in the latest match of the BallR Tri-Nation One-Day International Cricket Series against South Africa yesterday.
Their decision to allow the opponents first use of a benign strip for the second successive contest backfired and they paid the price with a heavy defeat by 139 runs at Warner Park in St Kitts.
There was no margin for error on the batting friendly surface on the smallest international ground in the Caribbean and West Indies’ bowlers were repeatedly punished throughout their 50 overs as South Africa duly marched to 343 for four on the back of Hashim Amla’s classy century and his impressive opening stand of 182 with Quinton de Kock.
West Indies briefly offered a semblance of a challenge to the visitors’ imposing total when openers Johnson Charles and Andre Fletcher were bludgeoning 58 off the first six overs, but that gallop was quickly reduced to something of a crawl after wrist spinners Imran Tahir and Tabraiz Shamsi were introduced. (HG)
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