Weather frustrates Proteas’ bid to grab Test

Losing seven sessions of play was the killer as the Proteas chased victory in the drawn first Test against the West Indies in Port of Spain, Proteas skipper Temba Bavuma said on Sunday.

The tourists were confident of achieving a positive result going into the match. However, it was the weather that would have the biggest say over the five match days.

The Proteas recorded 357 in their first innings thanks to 86 from Bavuma and 78 from opener Tony de Zorzi, while Wiaan Mulder scored an unbeaten 41.

In reply, 42 from Keacy Carty and 35 runs each by openers Mikyle Louis and skipper Kraigg Brathwaite saw West Indies post 233, with Keshav Maharaj returning figures of 4/76, while Kagiso Rabada chalked up 3/56.

Leading by 124 runs, SA batted with intent the second time around. A superb 68 from the bat of Tristan Stubbs coupled with 45 by De Zorzi and 38 by Aiden Markram saw them declare on 173/3 with a lead of 297.

Maharaj (4/88), who bowled more than 65 overs across both innings, took four of the five second-innings wickets to fall as the Windies reached 201 thanks to a sparkling 92 runs from Alick Athanze and 31 runs a piece by Carty and Jason Holder before the players shook hands and shared the spoils.

In his post-match media engagement, Bavuma felt the elements and dry nature of the pitch did neither side any favours.

“From a batting point of view, if I look at the way we went about our business in the second innings, we showed good, positive intent and we tried to buy ourselves as much time as possible by taking on the game.

“With the bowling, it was always going to be tough with the limited time we had. The guys gave it a good shot, and Keshav again was strong and supported by KG and the others,” he said.

Bavuma said there were a lot of strong individual performances.

“Keshav carried the attack from his end; he will take a lot of confidence from that. But it is not surprising — it’s the Keshav we know.

“Also guys like Tristan Stubbs getting his 50. What was exciting was seeing the way he went about his second innings, getting his 50 having not scored much in the first innings but still being confident enough to go out there and express himself. That speaks a lot for the character of the guy and I’m sure he will use that to build and gain more confidence.

“So there have been a lot of positives with bat and ball, considering we haven’t played [red ball] cricket for a while. So as a team, we can only get better from here and that is what we will be striving to do,” the skipper explained. 

The final instalment in the two-match series starts at the Providence Stadium in  Georgetown, Guyana, on Thursday (4pm SA time).