By: Tarish Bhatt
First it was Sunil Narine, and then Kieron Pollard. The men, who made a surprise comeback into the West Indies team, turned out to the match-winners against South Africa in Guyana.
West Indies started the tri-series in a thumping manner, beating South Africa by four wickets with 11 balls to spare, and sending the message loud and clear that beating them is not going to be easy.
Narine produced a match-winner performance, and finished with a career-best figures of 6 for 27. He ripped apart South Africa’s strong batting line-up, while also getting support from Jason Holder and Carlos Brathwaite.
After Narine, Pollard took the Providence Stadium by storm, and his first three scoring shots were sixes over the long-on. There was no stopping for Pollard after that and he teared the Proteas bowling apart.
Pollard anchored the innings from one end, and despite some quick blows. The big West Indian, meanwhile, smashed an unbeaten 67 at run a ball, featuring six maximums and two boundaries.
“Great to start the tournament with a win,” Holder said after the win. “I thought we summed up the conditions early and pulled it back.”
“Credit should go to Sunil Narine the way he bowled,” he added. “Polly played a quality innings. Pleasing as a captain and the guys were composed.”
Earlier, South Africa could only manage to post 188 on the board thanks to a fighting fifty from Rilee Rossouw, and some useful contributions from the top-order.
But, the middle-order and lower-order failed to read the slowness of the track, and were eventually bundled for a below-par score.
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