Sports
McCoy and Charles thump South Africa to give West Indies series sweep
West Indies swept the three-T20I series against South Africa to conclude their T20 World Cup preparations in the most commanding way possible. South Africa, on the other hand, have won just two of their last 11 completed T20I matches since the last T20 World Cup, and have lost series to West Indies twice and Australia once, and enter the global competition on the back foot.
If there’s any consolation, it’s that none of South Africa’s powerhouse middle order of Aiden Markram, Heinrich Klaasen, David Miller and Tristan Stubbs were part of this series, but all will return for the World Cup. Still, there remain concerns over Quinton de Kock, who scored 64 runs in three innings and didn’t have a good time of it at the BBL, the SA20 and the IPL earlier, while also appearing to pick up a back injury on Sunday; and Ryan Rickelton, who managed only 43 runs in three innings.
Equally, Anrich Nortje’s economy rate of 12.16 through the series and the absence of any wickets to his name raises questions over his readiness for international cricket after an almost-nine-month absence following a lower-back stress fracture. But he is part of South Africa’s final squad for the World Cup.
West Indies head to Trinidad to play Australia in a warm-up match before their first World Cup match in Guyana, and they appear as ready as they can be. They have won four out of five series since the last T20 World Cup, and beat South Africa 3-0 for the first time in this one. After defending totals of 175 and 207 to win the series, they were made to chase and hunted down 164 inside 14 overs to ease past South Africa again.
Obed McCoy added to the T20 World Cup squad in place of the injured Jason Holder, was the most successful bowler in the final match with 3 for 39, while stand-in captain Brandon King finished as the series’ leading run-scorer.
It was against South Africa, 15 months ago, that Johnson Charles made the case to reclaim his spot in the T20I squad with 118 off just 46 balls in a T20I in Centurion. But since then, it has been lean going for him. Charles went ten innings without crossing fifty, and questions over his T20 World Cup-squad involvement were more than just whispers.
But he silenced those questions with a knock of complete assurance and authority to bring up his fifth T20I half-century, and set the platform for another West Indies win. Charles’ takedown of South Africa’s fastest, Nortje and Gerald Coetzee, was most impressive. He scored 25 runs off just ten balls from Nortje, and 22 off four from Coetzee, including three successive sixes. Only three of his 69 runs came in singles, and even though he was dismissed in the seventh over, he had already put the result beyond doubt.
After taking three wickets in each of his last three games, left-arm spinner Gudakesh Motie seemed set for a similar haul after two exceptional overs. He was brought on immediately after the powerplay, and displayed good changes of pace to have de Kock trapped lbw, as the latter played a reverse sweep too early and was given out.
In Motie’s next over, Matthew Breetzke hit the ball back over the bowler’s head. It looked like a clean strike but wasn’t timed as well as he intended, and Shamar Joseph took a good catch inside the boundary rope to end a disappointing tour for the CSA T20’s top run-scorer for the 2023-24 season.
After two overs, Motie had 2 for 5, but his day didn’t finish as well as he would have hoped. He conceded 11 runs off his final over, as Rassie van der Dussen hit him for two sixes, and he wasn’t used again.
Excluded from South Africa’s T20 World Cup squad but asked to captain them in this series, van der Dussen has not had the easiest few months. But he had a strong last say on this tour. Van der Dussen scored a 30-ball fifty to take South Africa from 50 for 4 to 163 for 7, and demonstrated strong hitting skills straight down the ground. All five of his sixes were scored in the V between long-off and long-on, and his 77-run fifth-wicket stand with Wiaan Mulder was the difference between a South African collapse and a semblance of competitiveness.
Van der Dussen’s knock could have ended on 9 when he dragged a Hayden Walsh Jnr delivery from outside off to long-on, where Kyle Mayers was waiting for the catch. He took it cleanly but misjudged how close his back foot was to the boundary rope and stepped over it with the ball in hand. Van der Dussen was the first to gesture that he had earned six.
Six overs later, Mulder mis-hit a McCoy slower ball to long-on, where Mayers was ready to take the catch two-handed, with more than enough space behind him to tumble, hold on and avoid giving away a boundary.
With the bat, Mayers cracked four sixes in an unbeaten knock of 36, helping wrap the chase up after Charles had laid the foundation. But Mayers remains a reserve player in the West Indies T20 World Cup squad.
Brief scores:
West Indies 165/2 in 13.5 overs (Brandon King 44, Johnson Charles 69, Kyle Mayers 36*; Gerald Coetzee 1-37, Nqabayomzi Peter 1-27) beat South Africa 163/7 in 20 overs (Rassie van der Dussen 51, Wiaan Mulder 36; Shamar Joseph 2-26, Obed McCoy 3-39, Gudakesh Motie 2-21) by eight wickets
by Reemus Fernando
Supun Chathura of Welimada Central and Tharindi Chamalka of Nuwara Eliya High School claimed the boys’ and girls’ titles at the All-Island Schools Games Half Marathon, held in Colombo on Sunday.
Chathura won the boys’ race in a notable 1:14.51. Sameesha Nimsath of St. Pope Paul the Sixth MV, Gampaha, took second in 1:16.40, while Suranga Lal Kumara of Pussadewa Secondary School, Batagolla, clinched third in 1:16.42.
In the girls’ category, Chamalka won in 1:28.56. D.M.S. Nimsarani of CWW Kannangara MMV, Matugama (1:31.09), and W.S.C. Priyadharshani of President’s College, Ambagasdowa (1:33.10), finished second and third respectively.
The 21.0975-kilometre race, sponsored by Nestomalt, started at the Ministry of Education in Battaramulla. It passed through Polduwa Junction, Parliament Road, Ape Gama Junction, Kimbulawala Junction, Thalawathugoda, Hokandara Junction, Arangala Junction, Koswatta and Battaramulla Palanthuna Junction before returning to the starting point.
Girls winners (from left)D.M.S. Nimsarani (2nd), Tharindi Chamalka (first) and W.S.C. Priyadharshani
Pat Cummins outfoxed a lacklustre South Africa batting-order on a relatively benign Durban surface, while Steven Smith continued to showcase his mastery in the slips as Australia eyed a big first innings lead in the opening Test.
Outstanding bowling and fielding suffocated South Africa, who appeared set to be bowled out before tea on day three until a rearguard from Keshav Maharaj and Simon Harmer halted Australia’s push.
Cummins has been at his best, consistently challenging the batters as he regularly hit speeds of 140kph and above. He had 3-54 from 15 overs by tea, with all four frontline bowlers having taken wickets.
Smith backed up the bowlers by claiming three sublime catches, which lifted him past Joe Root for the most Test catches by a non-wicketkeeper.
With great anticipation, Smith moved into position to snare skipper Temba Bavuma, who had unfurled a reverse-sweep off Nathan Lyon. Smith then pulled off a stunning catch to dismiss David Bedingham, diving across first slip – it was No. 221 of his Test career.
Maaz Sadaqat crashed 96 off 51,Sahibzada Farhan clobbered 73 off 44, and Pakistan scorched their way through the last 12 overs of their innings to mount a fearsome total of 215 for 3. Pakistan reaped 156 runs just in the last 12 overs of their innings, as a 73-run stand between Sadaqat and Farhan was followed by a manic 72-run partnership between Sadaqat and Hasan Nawaz.
Sri Lanka’s batting was woeful in response. They slumped to 64 for 5 by the 11th over, with none of their top seven managing to get to 30. They limped to 133 for 7, having had their hopes of leveling the series wrecked by quicks Mohammad Imran and Salman Mirza, who took five wickets between them.
Sadaqat propels Pakistan into the stratosphere
The openers had laid a decent platform with Pakistan having got to 55 for 1 by the end of the seventh over. But it was Sadaqat who injected the energy that truly set Pakistan on course to their mammoth total. Having gone at less than a run a ball in his first eight balls, Sadaqat unleashed a spectacular lofted square drive off Eshan Malinga to collect his first six, before pumping the same bowler down the ground later in the 10th over.
Sadaqat would go on to clobber six further sixes and five further fours. The big hits tended to come down the ground, while his fours were more square of the wicket. Of the 125 runs Pakistan plundered in the second half of their innings, 79 off 40 came from Sadaqat, who pummeled both pace and spin with equal relish. Off the sixteenth over, bowled by Maheesh Theekshana, Sadaqat thumped three sixes in the arc between long on and midwicket.
Sadaqat, whose previous top score in three T20Is had been 50, could have gone to triple figures off the last ball of the innings, but holed out to deep cover instead, unable to quite find the power to lift a Malinga slower ball over the ropes. He had utterly dominated the middle and late overs, however.
Farhan sets the tone
On another flat Rawalpindi deck, Farhan made the first big charge, although he waited until spin came on to really get into high gear. Theekshana was one of his main victims as well. Farhan’s first six came from a slog sweep off Theekshana in the seventh over, before he launched the same bowler over wide long on and cow corner off successive balls in the ninth over. Getting to his 12th T20I fifty off the 31st ball he faced, Farhan began to aim big blows off the seamers as well. He was caught at deep third off the bowling of Dasun Shanaka, in the 15th over.
Sri Lanka stumble in the powerplay
An excellent Salman Mirza bouncer took the glove of Lahiru Udara in the first over, ending the innings of one of Sri Lanka’s few form batters for a mere five runs. And although Sineth Jayawardena – playing his first international in a full-strength Sri Lanka side – hit three consecutive boundaries in the third over, Sri Lanka were unable to build up any momentum in the powerplay. By the end of the sixth over, they had laboured to 35 for 2.
Imran’s spell lights up the middle overs
A full house in Rawalpindi was treated to some excellent fast bowling by Imran, who finished with the game’s best figures of 3 for 11 from his four overs. Having got Jayawardena to top-edge a desperate pull shot at the end of his second over, Imran had Kusal Mendis caught behind off a slower delivery, before two balls later (a wide in between), he took Sahan Arachchige’s edge with a quick delivery angled across the left-hander. Wicketkeeper Khawaja Nafay made two diving grabs to convert these chances in the eighth over.
All through his unbroken spell, Sri Lanka’s batter struggled to so much as hit Imran off the square, despite the good batting conditions on offer. Imran mixed up his pace, frequently going to slower balls, but his line and length control were also excellent through the spell. When he finished his unbroken spell at the end of the 10th over, Sri Lanka’s required rate had climbed past 15.
Chamindu Wickramasinghe and Theekshana struck some late boundaries, but by the time they came to the crease, Sri Lanka did not have a realistic shot at levelling this series. They lost by 82 runs in the end.
Scores:
Pakistan 215 for 3 in 20 overs (Sahibzada Farhan 73, Fakhar Zaman 22, Maaz Sadaqat 96, Hasan Nawaz 19*; Maheesh Theekshana 1-55, Eshan Malinga 1-41,Dasun Shanaka 1-30) beat Sri Lanka 133 for 7 (Sineth Jayawardena 22, Kamnbdu Mendis 23, Chamindu Wickremasinghe 29, Maheesh Theekshana 32*; Salman Mirza 2=28, Mohammad Imran 3-11, Saim Ayub 1-19, Shadab Khan 1-19) by 82 runs
[Cricinfo]
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