South Africa fell 48 short despite as many as 50 balls remaining. Bavuma started hitting as soon as de Kock - who smashed 48 from 26 balls fell - and kept going until the end, perhaps hinting at his new-found approach. There was no real contribution otherwise, as this match brought back memories of this ODI between South Africa and England in 2009, not least because the South Africa captains on the day got similar scores. Anyway, we bid goodbye to you until the series decider after this excellent start to the series. Goodnight from Deiva, Raghav, and me, Himanshu!
West Indies captain Shai Hope is the Player of the Match: "Temba played a brilliant innings, but catches win matches. We put ourselves under pressure... It was important for us to focus on what was ahead of us. I thought it was a difficult to start on. Once you get in, you've got to go big. You have to play the situation... Credit must go to the batting partners to make it easy for me. Brilliant start to the series"
Temba Bavuma speaks first: "Lungi and I just said to each other that you never know what can happen... If we had restricted them to around 300 considering we had got early wickets. There is nowhere else to learn... this is valuable experience. This is all about learning. We kept believing, and taking it ball by ball. Definitely not Anrich [for the third ODI]."
Time for the presentations
Kevin: "That's the most I've ever seen Joseph celebrate a wicket!"
8.56pm A day for the two captains, although only one of them would be a happy man. A shame really that Bavuma ended up on the wrong side despite a scintillating fight worth 144 - his highest ODI score - off only 118 balls. One of those days when you give everything you have, but things still don't fall in place. He could only watch, as the hosts lost 6 for 54 in a dramatic middle-order collapse. Bavuma's opposite number Hope hit 128* himself, as West Indies posted 335 - their best against South Africa in this format - and finished the day as the winner. Hang around for the presentations after this great contest.
T Shamsi c †Hope b Joseph 0 (2b 0x4 0x6) SR: 0.00
"@Celine looks like you are responsible indeed" --- Thanks, Sak
Shamsi the last man
T Bavuma c †Hope b Joseph 144 (118b 11x4 7x6) SR: 122.03
Celine: "@Himanshu: If SA does not win this, you are responsible... ok?" --- Just like how I am responsible for all their World Cup breakdowns so far?
END OF OVER:41 | 4 Runs | SA: 286/8 (50 runs required from 54 balls, RR: 6.97, RRR: 5.55)
- Lungi Ngidi11 (22b)
- Temba Bavuma144 (117b)
- Kyle Mayers6-0-40-1
- Alzarri Joseph8-0-52-1
