West Indies 132 for 7 (Powell 43*, Magala 3-21) beat South Africa 131 for 8 (Miller 48, Smith 2-21) by three wickets
Hosein strikes upfront; Rossouw and Hendricks hit back
Boundary hitting was top of South Africa’s minds, even as the ball seemed to stick in the pitch a touch, and it backfired on them. Aiden Markram tried to clear deep midwicket off Alzarri Joseph, was too early on the stroke and skied it to Charles, who took a good catch. In the next over, Hendricks was premature on the pull and feathered an edge to Nicholas Pooran behind the stumps. And the over after that, Heinrich Klaasen threw his bat at a wide Cottrell delivery and sent to it Charles at backward point. South Africa lost 21 for 3 and boundaries dried up. They did not find the rope once between the fifth and eighth overs.
Miller and Magala finish strongly
King gets cracking; Fortuin strikes back
King got West Indies’ chase underway in the best possible way when he hit Fortuin through extra cover for four and over deep midwicket for six. Kyle Mayers then slogged to send Fortuin over long-on – and hit a woman in the crowd unintentionally, but South Africa’s left-arm seamer was not about to let his opening over end without a wicket. He held his pace back and had Mayers edging a delivery he tried to hit over point in the air. De Kock took the catch. West Indies finished the first over on 17 for 1 and with King still at the crease. He went on to hit 12 runs off Wayne Parnell’s first over, which cost 17 in total, but was bowled by a Magala full toss, when he made too much room to paddle it away. West Indies finished their Powerplay on 46 for 2.
Nortje gets Pooran – twice – and then catches Charles – twice
Anrich Nortje, who recovered from a groin niggle that kept him out of the second Test and the ODIs, was introduced in the fourth over and made an immediate impression. His first ball was full and wide and Pooran crashed it to Magala at extra cover. Magala missed the ODI series after splitting the webbing on his right hand, which he got to the ball but then could not hold on to it. An annoyed Nortje picked up the pace for his next one and Pooran nicked off. For the next over, Nortje went to long-on and was in place when Charles hit a full Tabriz Shamsi ball his way. Nortje took the catch but then realised he was going to step on the boundary cushion, so he parried the ball back into the field, regained his balance and stepped back in to take the catch. A lengthy replay showed Nortje had done everything right and Charles was out for 28.
After showing his intent against spin when he hit a Shamsi googly for six, Powell got stuck into Fortuin and put West Indies in the driving seat. He sent the first ball of the left-armer’s second over past long-off for six, then cleared the front leg to hit him down the ground for four and ended the over with successive sixes. Powell had scored 10 runs off seven balls before the over and 33 off 12 after that over and put West Indies in a position from which they should not have lost, and they didn’t.