Klaasen drives Proteas to victory to level series with West Indies
South Africa vs West Indies
Third One-Day International
Venue: JB Marks Oval, Potchefstroom
Result: South Africa won by 4 wickets
Series Result: drawn 1-1
Scorecard: https://bit.ly/savwi3rdodi23
Heinrich Klaasen played a masterclass of an innings to bring the Proteas back from a 1-0 deficit against the West Indies, as history is made in South Africa. Stand-in captain Aiden Markram won the toss and decided to bowl first at the West Indies in the morning. The Men in Maroon got off to a decent start with Brandon King taking a liking to Lungi Ngidi in the powerplay. Kyle Mayers (14 from 22 balls) however, wasn’t his usual free scoring self, eventually falling on the final ball of the seventh over going hard at a bouncer from Marco Jansen.
King then continued piling on the runs and alongside Shamarh Brooks (18 from 24 balls) put on the biggest partnership for the innings, of 71 runs, with the former being the main contributor. Nicholas Pooran (39 from 41 balls) and Jason Holder (36 from 43 balls) were the two other major contributors with the bat, in an innings that saw West Indies get to 260 runs off 48.2 overs.
The South African bowlers split the wickets between them, with Wayne Parnell, Marco Jansen and Bjorn Fortuin picking up two apiece and Lungi Ngidi, Wayne Parnell and Aiden Markram got one each.
After the innings break, South Africa came out to chase the target of 261. After 12.1 overs, the West Indies were very well in the match, with the Proteas at 87-4. However, a brilliant innings by Klaasen took the game away from the visitors. He scored 119 runs off just 61 balls at remarkable run rate of 195.08, building a particularly good partnership of 103 runs with Jansen (43 from 33 balls as they required just 29.3 over to reach the target.
West Indies fast bowler Alzarri Joseph continued his form in the series by taking 3-50 in his eight overs, with left-arm spinner Akeal Hosein supporting with 2-49 and seamer Kyle Mayers picking up 1-12.
Drawing the series at 1-1 is a historic result for the West Indies, having never won or drawn a series in South Africa. West Indies captain Shai Hope was named joint Man-of-the-Series, along with Klaasen.
Speaking to the media after the series, about today’s match, Hope expressed:
“I think we batted well in stages, but we didn’t capitalize on the start we got again from King and Mayers. Sometimes you have to give credit where it’s due, and Klassen played an excellent innings today and again, we can discuss all the points in hindsight, but we didn’t hit our straps today and South Africa won the game.”
The teams now move on to the T20 International Series, with the first match to be played on Saturday, 25 March at SuperSport Park in Centurion. First ball is 2pm (8am EasternCaribbean/7am Jamaica).
