Van Wyk guides SA to victory

15 January 2015 - 02:08 By Telford Vice
subscribe Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package.
Subscribe now

Chris Gayle did not come out to play at Kingsmead last night. For the first time in more than two months, JP Duminy did.

But that did not matter in the context of the third T20 international between SA and West Indies, what with the series already won by the visitors.

And especially not with Morne van Wyk becoming the third South African to score a century in the format at this level.

Van Wyk's 114 not out was the innings of a man who should have been in SA's World Cup squad. He took his ton off 67 balls, and he smashed seven sixes and nine fours. It was batting at its most brutally beautiful.

That powered SA to 195/3 against opponents who looked like they would rather be bowling and fielding on the nearby beach. They batted that way, too, and were dismissed for 126 to make SA winners by 69 runs.

Van Wyk, however, played the game of his life. "When I got to, like, 98 it was the first time it struck me that I might make a hundred for my country," he said. "Even the umpire told me to just keep breathing."

Gayle, who hit SA's attack for 167 runs off the 72 balls he faced to win the first two games, was ruled out by his back problem.

Because of another back issue, David Miller's, Duminy returned a game ahead of schedule from a lay-off for a knee condition. He celebrated by dancing down the pitch to his first ball and launching it over long-on for six. He faced just two balls, and bowled six.

A thunderstorm yesterday morning would have had the Kingsmead faithful holding their heads in their hands. Nowhere else in SA has the weather been as cruel to cricket.

Of the previous 50 games played in the shorter formats at the ground, six had been washed out. Six is also how many matches have been abandoned to the elements out of all 308 international limited overs games played at all 12 other venues in SA.

But the skies cleared, and Van Wyk and Reeza Hendricks were able to post 111: the third century opening stand in SA's 76 T20s.

Eighty-six runs roared off the first eight overs, but West Indies reeled the home side back after Dwayne Bravo came on to bowl.

However, Bravo, turned villain in conceding 23 runs - 18 of them in sixes - in SA's last over.

Twenty-three runs was also how many Wayne Parnell went for in the fourth over of the West Indians' reply - by way of a wide, and four fours and a six cracked by Lendl Simmons.

Simmons was caught in the deep off David Wiese in the ninth over for 49. Wiese took a career-best 5/23, the second five-wicket haul by a South African.

subscribe Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package.
Subscribe now