West Indies held South Africa onto a draw in the rain-marred first Test of the two-match series in Port of Spain on Sunday, August 11. Alick Athanaza with a counter-attacking knock of 92 runs off just 116 runs helped West Indies avoid any mishap while chasing 298 after South Africa declared on 173/3 to enforce a result giving themselves almost 60 overs to bowl out the hosts in the second innings.
When South Africa had both the West Indies gone in the first eight overs, there was a chance but the likes of Keacy Carty, Athanaze, Kevam Hodge and Jason Holder collectively denied the visitors any hope of a win.
The draw meant both South Africa and the West Indies earned four points each from the Test match. While the West Indies have already been eliminated from the race of the World Test Championship (WTC) final, South Africa still have a chance and the draw has brought mixed news for them.
It is negative in the sense that South Africa would have fancied a win here and hence a draw is less than what they had expected. But at least they got some points out of it, so that's the positive side of the result. Now what has that done to their WTC chances? Before the West Indies series, South Africa had to win seven out of their remaining eight Test matches. Now that one is drawn, they still have to win six of the remaining seven.
South Africa are currently in joint seventh place on the WTC table with 25 points percentage (PCT). If South Africa win six out of their remaining seven Tests, their PCT will jump up to 61.1, which should be enough for them to make it to the final. If South Africa win just five out of their remaining seven games, their PCT will only reach 52.77 which might not be enough for them to go through.
Apart from the one remaining Test match in the ongoing series, South Africa are scheduled to play Bangladesh away, Sri Lanka and Pakistan at home. The Proteas would fancy their chances having a shot at the WTC final but will rue their chances of not winning the first Test in Port of Spain, due to the rain.
Australia and India are still very much favourites to make it to the WTC final with 62.50 and 68.52 PCT respectively.
