The T20 series between South Africa and the West Indies is poised for a dramatic finish on Tuesday evening. The Proteas leveled the series at one game apiece in a thrilling, world record chase at Centurion on Sunday night.
Cricket fans were treated to a historic six wicket win at SuperSport Park as the Proteas recorded the highest successful run chase in T20 cricket, amassing 259 runs to defeat the West Indies and set up a mouth-watering series decider at the Bullring on Tuesday night.
Their emphatic victory was largely attributed to the heroics of openers Quinton de Kock and Reeza Hendricks, who gave them just about the perfect start with the bat-sharing in a 152 opening stand.
De Kock scored his maiden T20 century from just 43 deliveries and for the left-hander it was all about keeping it simple.
“(We) just said to coach we just need a bit of hope and that’s all we need and just carried on doing what we did … all our batting chats, we do who to take down, who not to, especially playing here, we know that you can get a lot of runs here. So (we) just kept it simple,” says De Kock.
South Africa’s victory on Sunday night would have invoked the elation of the 438 game which has been labeled by some as one of the greatest ODI’s ever played.
There, the Proteas chased down the highest ever One Day total to defeat Australia in Johannesburg, back in 2006.
Fastbowler Kagiso Rabada said that the Windies’ total was 10 runs short as he walked off the field, after the visitors posted a massive 258.
“KG obviously made that comment, but everyone in the change room was quietly confident that this is really a good wicket. We never doubted ourselves at any stage. We believed it was a good wicket and we believed we had the batters in the team to go out there and chase the score down, obviously, which we did. So, it was good to come on the right side of it, but yeah (the) guys were quietly confident. We always believed we could chase it down because it was a good wicket,” says Reeza Hendricks.
The final match is a night game at the Wanderers Stadium on Tuesday, starting a 6 pm.
