South Africa overcame a spirited fight from West Indies in the 2nd and final Test of the series to win the match by 40 runs and take the series 1-0 on Saturday, August 17. The win saw the Proteas move past Pakistan in the World Test Championship standings with their second win of the ongoing edition of the Test tournament.
Defending a target of 263 at the Providence Stadium in Guyana, Kagiso Rabada and Keshav Maharaj's three-fors got the job done against a resilient fight from the Windies. Wiaan Mulder also made important contributions - both with the bat and the ball - as the visitors displayed a complete team effort to win the game.
The victory takes the Proteas to fifth place in the WTC standings and push Pakistan to sixth place. South Africa have 2 wins, 3 losses and a draw in 6 matches with a points percentage of 38.89.
Pakistan have 2 wins and 3 losses in their 5 games and their PCT stands at 36.66. India lead the nine-team WTC table with 68.51 PCT, followed by defending champions Australia in second with a PCT of 62.50. The Windies are in ninth place with 1 win, 6 losses and 2 draws with a PCT of 18.52. They are all but out of the reckoning of the WTC final.
Coming back to the second innings, Kagiso Rabada struck first as he got the Windies Mikyle Louis early on in the fifth over with the opener edging behind to slips. Skipper Kraigg Brathwaite was dismissed for 25 and the Windies went down to 104/6 with a chance of losing big.
But Gudakesh Motie and Joshua Da Silva put up a fight, notching a stand of 77 and bringing the target within sights and under 100. In came Keshav Maharaj as he got both the set batters out in consecutive overs to send the hosts on the ropes. While Jomel Warrican put up 25 coming in at nine, the Windies were 40 short in the end.
Earlier, the Proteas made 246 in their second innings, already having a lead of 16 from the first innings. Kyle Verreynne and Aiden Markram struck fifties but Jayden Seales came strongly with a six-wicket haul in the second innings.
In the first innings, the Proteas made only 160 in challenging conditions with Shamar Joseph taking a fifer. The Windies replied with 144, a little short of the Proteas like they fell at the end.
