Shai Hope 128* leads West Indies to highest ODI total against South Africa

50 overs West Indies 335 for 8 (Hope 128*, Powell 46, Coetzee 3-57) vs South Africa

However, it was only six weeks back that South Africa had chased down 343 against England in Bloemfontein. They are without six of the XI from that day through a combination of squad rotation, injuries and illness, and have three debut batters in the team – Ryan Rickelton, Tony de Zorzi and Tristan Stubbs – as they test their depth.

And the unavailability of Sisanda Magala, who split the webbing on his right hand, meant South Africa had only five bowlers at their disposal, which left them without options to keep West Indies quiet for sustained periods of time.

On a slow pitch, South Africa started with speed as Ngidi and Jansen took the new balls. Ngidi searched for swing, and found some, but did not bowl a single slower ball in his first spell, while Jansen erred on the side of too full. The first boundary came off him, when Brandon King drove through extra cover, and then cut him behind point for successive fours.

Jansen adjusted to slightly shorter, and Kyle Mayers pulled him through square leg in response. When he tried length, Mayers hit him onto the grass bank for the innings’ first six. West Indies were 66 without loss after eight overs before Temba Bavuma turned to spin. At domestic level, Bjorn Fortuin has made a habit of taking wickets in his opening over, and he did exactly that in East London, albeit not with his best ball.

Mayers pulled a half-tracker to Rickelton at deep midwicket to spark a mini-collapse. He was the first of three dismissals in 12 balls as Shamarh Brooks chopped a short ball from Coetzee onto his stumps, and King was bowled by a Fortuin yorker that snuck under the bat.

At 71 for 3, West Indies needed to rebuild, and it was up to current and former captains – Hope and Nicholas Pooran – to do that. They took on the spinners with good use of the feet – and also Jansen, who continued to struggle to find the right length – sharing a stand of 86 runs from 79 balls which took West Indies past 150.

After 30 overs, West Indies were 184 for 4 and they started the 31st with Hope reaching fifty off 59 balls. A target of 330-plus was in the offing until Powell bottom-edged another Coetzee short ball onto his stumps and South Africa applied a squeeze. They gave away just eight runs in the next 22 balls, including a scoreless over from Jansen, before another former leader in Jason Holder broke the drought by hitting Coetzee over his head for four.

Hope neared the 90s with sixes off Fortuin and Ngidi, and put on 42 with Holder before a good review from Quinton de Kock separated them. Holder got down to reverse sweep Shamsi, who came back to bowl out in the last six overs, but the ball hit Holder’s bicep. Marais Erasmus was not convinced but ball tracking showed it would go on to hit the stumps.

Jansen had Akeal Hosein out lbw with an inswinging yorker, and Odean Smith was bowled by a Shamsi wrong ‘un that he did not pick before Hope brought up his hundred. It came off the 104th ball he faced with a single to deep square leg, and was met with fairly modest celebration.

But Hope still had a job to do. He started the 48th over by whacking Jansen over extra cover for six, and scored 28 runs off the last nine balls he faced. West Indies scored 93 runs off the last ten overs, including 40 runs off the last three. However, the team batting second have won seven out of 11 day-night games at Buffalo Park so South Africa will fancy their chances of hunting down 336.