Chase, Motie seal series for WI

Source: Trinidad Guardian

KINGSTON - All-rounder Ros­ton Chase blast­ed a ca­reer-best, un­beat­en fifty in a Man-of-the-Match ef­fort and left-arm spin­ner Gu­dakesh Motie fol­lowed up with a box of­fice spell, as West In­dies held their nerve su­perbly to trounce South Africa by 16 runs and seal the three-match se­ries in Ja­maica Sat­ur­day.

Opt­ing to bat first in the sec­ond Twen­ty20 In­ter­na­tion­al at Sabi­na Park, the home side rat­tled up an im­pres­sive 207 for sev­en off their 20 overs with the 32-year-old Chase top scor­ing with a scin­til­lat­ing 38-ball 67 not out - his maid­en half-cen­tu­ry in the short­est for­mat.

In re­ply, South Africa raced to 81 with­out loss in on­ly the sixth over with Quin­ton de Kock (41) and Reeza Hen­dricks (34) play­ing with gay aban­don, leav­ing West In­dies scram­bling to find so­lu­tions to the haem­or­rhag­ing of runs.

Motie came to his side's res­cue, pro­duc­ing a bril­liant four-over spell of three for 22 as South Africa lost their next sev­en wick­ets for 86 runs to watch as the in­nings came off the rails at 191 for sev­en off their 20.

Cap­tain Rassie van der Dussen struck a last-ditch 30 from 22 balls with two six­es but the vis­i­tors lacked the fire­pow­er they need­ed in or­der to ral­ly.

Fast bowl­ing all-rounder Ro­mario Shep­herd and off-spin­ner Chase grabbed on­ly a wick­et apiece but they too put the shack­les on the Pro­teas scor­ing with stingy four-over spells that yield­ed 23 and 26 runs re­spec­tive­ly.

The vic­to­ry fol­lowed on the heels of Thurs­day's 28-run win and pro­pelled West In­dies' prepa­ra­tions for next month's ICC Twen­ty20 World Cup in­to high gear.

Cap­tain Bran­don King once again pro­vid­ed the ide­al launch for the in­nings, belt­ing 36 from 22 de­liv­er­ies with two fours and three six­es as West In­dies raced to 54 for one in­side the pow­er-play.

John­son Charles be­came the first ca­su­al­ty when he skied to deep mid-wick­et in the fourth over for sev­en with the score on 26, and King put on a fur­ther 28 for the sec­ond wick­et with Kyle May­ers (32) be­fore fol­low­ing in the sev­enth over, tug­ging an in­nocu­ous de­liv­ery from leg-spin­ner Nqabay­omzi Pe­ter (2-32) to long on.

The left-hand­ed May­ers picked up the slack, clob­ber­ing two fours and three six­es in a 16-ball cameo but his demise, caught on the ropes at deep square, left West In­dies stut­ter­ing on 83 for three in the ninth over.

Chase, in on­ly his 13th T20I, then emerged from a slow start to pum­mel sev­en fours and a brace of six­es as he an­chored suc­ces­sive half-cen­tu­ry stands to en­sure West In­dies dom­i­nat­ed the back end of the in­nings

He post­ed 56 for the fourth wick­et with An­dre Fletch­er (29) and a fur­ther 63 for the fifth wick­et with Shep­herd whose 13-ball 26 in­clud­ed a four and three six­es.

Chase stormed to his fifty off 30 balls in the 17th over, rais­ing the land­mark with a mighty six over mid-wick­et off pac­er Lun­gi Ngi­di (2-41) as West In­dies gath­ered a whop­ping 80 runs from the last six overs.

De Kock, es­pe­cial­ly, then stunned West In­dies, blast­ing four fours and four six­es in an en­ter­tain­ing 17-ball stay at the crease, putting on 81 off 30 balls with open­ing part­ner Hen­dricks, who struck two fours and three six­es in an 18-ball cameo.

Left-arm spin­ner Akeal Ho­sein got the break­through when he bowled de Kock as the left-han­der backed away to cut and with on­ly two runs added in the next over, Hen­dricks missed a pad­dle at a faster full-length ball from Chase and had his stumps al­so rat­tled.

The two wick­ets hauled the home side back in the con­test and though Ryan Rick­el­ton (19) and Matthew Breet­zke (12) added 30 for the third wick­et, there were no fire­works, as bound­aries be­came rare.

Breet­zke was even­tu­al­ly run out in the 10th at the strik­er's end at­tempt­ing a sec­ond, Rick­el­ton skied to May­ers at cov­er in the 12th and Andile Phehluk­wayo (3) was bril­liant­ly tak­en at deep cov­er by Joseph in the 15th from Motie, to leave South Africa in trou­ble at 138 for five.

Van der Dussen tried to res­cue the chase in a 28-run, sixth-wick­et part­ner­ship with Wiaan Mul­der (9) but Motie got him to mis-hit a full toss to long off in the 17th over, ef­fec­tive­ly end­ing his side's re­sis­tance.

WEST IN­DIES 207 for sev­en off 20 overs (Ros­ton Chase 67 not out, Bran­don King 36, Kyle May­ers 32, An­dre Fletch­er 29, Ro­mario Shep­herd 26; Nqabay­omzi Pe­ter 2-32, Lun­gi Ngi­di 2-41)

SOUTH AFRICA 191 for sev­en off 20 overs (Quin­ton de Kock 40, Reeza Hen­dricks 34, Rassie van der Dussen 30; Gu­dakesh Motie 3-22)