South Africa rout WI to claim Test series, retain top spot

CAPE TOWN: Opener Dean Elgar hit an unbeaten 60 as South Africa coasted to a comfortable eight-wicket win against the West Indies in the final Test at Newlands here on Tuesday to take the three-match series 2-0 and retain their ranking as the top side in Tests.

Elgar and captain Hashim Amla (38 not out) saw South Africa home as they reached 124 for two wickets before lunch on the final day to secure victory.

“It is good to still be the number one Test team but it’s not really about the ranking. It needs to be about being a winning team for a long time,” Amla said.

The hosts were nine for one overnight and showed no hurry to knock off the remaining 115 runs needed for victory.

The first 44 balls of the day failed to deliver any runs before Elgar finally stroked a boundary off Jerome Taylor to break the stranglehold.

Faf du Plessis was out for 14 just after the first hour, handing Sulieman Benn a second wicket of the innings after the spinner bowled opener Aviro Petersen with the last ball on Monday. The tall left-arm spinner toiled for 16 successive overs on Tuesday to finish with figures of two for 24.

Tuesday’s win added to South Africa’s victory by an innings and 220 runs in the first Test in Pretoria. The second Test in Port Elizabeth was a rain-affected draw.

Rain also threatened to play a role in the final Test as half of the fourth day was lost to bad weather, offering the West Indies a chance to create a contest after clawing back from a 92-run first innings deficit.

But their resistance crumbled after Marlon Samuels lost his wicket at 182-4 in the second innings on Monday, out for 74 to an injudicious slog that saw him caught on the boundary.

It precipitated a collapse as their next six wickets went for a paltry 33 runs as they were dismissed for 215, leaving South Africa a modest target of 124 to win.

“He could have gone on and made a real difference,” said West Indies captain Denesh Ramdin of Samuel’s rash dismissal.

“We needed at least 70 more runs to be comfortable and make a game of it on the last day.”

The two teams will play three Twenty20 Internationals and five One-day Internationals ahead of the World Cup.

Scoreboard

WEST INDIES (1st Innings) 329 SOUTH AFRICA (1st Innings) 421 WEST INDIES (2nd Innings) 215 SOUTH AFRICA (2nd Innings, overnight 9-1): D. Elgar not out60 A. Petersen b Benn0 F. du Plessis c Blackwood b Benn14 H. Amla not out38

EXTRAS (B-8, LB-2, NB-2)12

TOTAL (for two wkts, 37.4 overs)124

FALL OF WKTS: 1-9, 2-51.

BOWLING: Taylor 7-3-20-0; Samuels 3.4-0-24-0; Benn 17-8-24-2; Holder 5-0-19-0; Gabriel 5-1-27-0 (2nb).

RESULT: South Africa won by eight wickets.

MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: A.B. de Villiers

SERIES: South Africa won the three-match series 2-0.

MAN-OF-THE-SERIES: Hashim Amla

UMPIRES: Aleem Dar (Pakistan), Paul Reiffel (Australia)

TV UMPIRE: Billy Bowden (New Zealand)

MATCH REFEREE: Ranjan Madugalle (Sri Lanka).

Published in Dawn, January 7th, 2015