At the Queen's Park Oval in Port of Spain, Trinidad, the opening test match of the two-match test series between the West Indies and South Africa ended in a tie.
Rain greatly affected the exam, making it impossible to complete the allotted number of overs in the allotted five days. In this test, 295 overs were bowled out of a possible 450. With five wickets remaining and West Indies needing 97 more runs to win, the match was tied in the last session of day five.
Temba Bavuma, the captain of South Africa, chose to bat first after winning the toss. After batting for 117.4 overs over the course of more than two days, the visitors scored 357 runs. Tony de Zorzi opened the scoring with 78, followed by captain Bavuma with 86.
In response, Keshav Maharaj bowled masterfully to return with figures of 40-15-76-4, bludgeoning the West Indies for 233.
South Africa, who had gained a 124-run lead in the first innings, batted aggressively in an attempt to push for a victory. They scored at a run rate of 5.96 in their second innings. The Proteas set a target of 298 runs for the hosts when they declared after scoring 173/3. With 50 balls, Tristan Stubbs smashes 68 runs.
Rain prevented just 56.2 overs of play, meaning South Africa had to capture 10 wickets in the final 72 overs to win. Alick Athanaze of the West Indies scored 92 runs off 116 balls in a fun innings.
|
|
Teams |
M |
W |
L |
T |
D |
PT |
PEN |
|
1 |
India |
4 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
26 |
-2 |
|
2 |
South Africa |
2 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
12 |
0 |
|
3 |
New Zealand |
2 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
12 |
0 |
|
4 |
Australia |
7 |
4 |
2 |
0 |
1 |
42 |
-10 |
|
5 |
Bangladesh |
2 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
12 |
0 |
|
6 |
Pakistan |
4 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
22 |
-2 |
|
7 |
West Indies |
2 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
4 |
0 |
|
8 |
England |
5 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
1 |
9 |
-19 |
|
9 |
Sri Lanka |
2 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
Since both sides are still in the bottom three, the outcome of the WI vs. SA test match had no bearing on the World Test Championship points standings. There is extremely little possibility that South Africa and the West Indies will make it to the final of the ICC World Test Championship in 2023–25.
The two most likely opponents to face each other in the final the following year, which is set to take place at Lord's in England in June 2025, are Australia and India.
