South African bowler Ryan McLaren ripped through the West Indies batting line-up to take five wickets for 19 runs as South Africa won the first of two Twenty20 internationals in Antigua on Wednesday.
Jacques Kallis struck 53 off 45 balls to guide South Africa to 136-7 off 20 overs, reports BBC. The 34-year-old hit three sixes and one four in a second-wicket stand of 73 with captain Graeme Smith.
West Indies were unable to build up any momentum as they lost by 13 runs. Both sides made changes to their line-ups after disappointing World Twenty20 campaigns.
West Indies left experienced batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul, wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin and paceman Ravi Rampaul out of their squad of 14, while, South Africa omitted keeper Mark Boucher, batsman Hashim Amla and seamers Morne Morkel and Lonwabe Tsotsobe.
McLaren became only the fourth bowler to collect five wickets in a T20 match with his commanding display. "It's a good way to start off the tour having practised indoors and not outdoors for the last few weeks. But it's only the first day, and there's plenty more cricket to come, so hopefully, I can better this performance," he said.
"We all know the nature of T20 cricket - the bowler is always up against it. You can take five wickets one day, and the next day, take a thumping, but I enjoyed it. It was not an easy day for the batters, and you had to graft pretty hard."
West Indies captain Chris Gaye, who was caught at long-on for 14 off the bowling of McLaren, promised an improvement from his side.
"It was a disappointing start for us," said Gayle. "We wanted to put our dismal performance in the T20 World Cup behind us, but this was not the best way to do it, and was not the best start to the series. We still have a match on Thursday, so we have to pick ourselves up. This is no time for pointing fingers. We have a lot of corrections to make out there, and we have to return to the drawing board to try and get the best out of the players."
