Where did West Indies lose to South Africa at Barbados

Another series another defeat. That is exactly how the West Indies side would be feeling currently, as they went flat against the much stronger South African side to lose the third and the final Test match at Barbados. With this defeat the side had lost their second game of the Test series to lose the same 2-0. The side had thus lost all their games on the tour except a rain-induced drawn second game.

 

So, what exactly happened that pushed the West Indian side back and where did they lose the game?

 

Oh for some better batting please, first up!

West Indies had a huge advantage going for them given that they had won the toss and decided to bat first on a track that had all the makings of being one which would crack up later. It was very evident that chasing a fourth innings score was always going to be difficult for the side. That is why West Indies knew that if they could get to something in the region of 350-400, not only would they have had some runs on the board, but also ensured that the game would have been pushed to the fifth and the final day of the Test match.

 

In doing so, the pitch would also make it more difficult for the team batting on the final day to score the runs and given that it was going to be South Africa to do so, West Indies knew they had a big advantage going for them.

 

As it turned out, the West Indian side collapsed on the first day rather abysmally, or should I say, like how they have normally done. Apart from a half century by Dwayne Bravo, none of the others got anywhere close to getting to even a half century and collapsed to 231 all out in the first innings. This was never going to be enough for the side.

 

And what about the second innings?

There are some teams in the world which take their own time to get going in a series and even in Test matches, they play much better in the second innings than in the first. with the West Indies, even that logic seems to not work at all. Their shot selection in the second innings was so atrocious that it is even a surprise that some of them are still playing international cricket. Narsingh Deonarine’s expansive shot off the first ball he faced against the world’s best bowler, Dale Steyn was appalling at best.

 

West Indies managed to garner only 161 in the second innings of the game, and 71 of those runs came off the blade of Shivnarine Chanderpaul, which shows the general manner in which the rest of them batted. Time to make some changes to the batting.

 

Johan Botha’s excellent comeback to team:

Botha had not been a part of the side in the first two Test matches and is generally regarded as a much better ODI and T20I bowler than a Test match bowler. But, for this game, he was selected ahead of Lonwobo Tsotsobe and the move paid rich dividends.

 

In the first innings, Botha finished with figures of 4/56 in his hear 20 overs, and that included three of the top four batsmen in the side. then, he followed it up with another three wicket haul in the second innings to end with a seven wickets haul – a 7/102 in the game, that was enough to not only win his side the game but also to win him the man of the match award.

 

In the end, the track turned enough to assist his brand of bowling and the opposition had no reply to the same.