South Africa pulled off the very best profitable run chase in Twenty20 worldwide cricket to beat West Indies by six wickets in Centurion on Sunday.
Opener Quinton de Kock hit a maiden T20 century as South Africa posted 259-4 after setting a mammoth goal of 13 runs per over to win the match.
Johnson Charles had led the West Indies to 258–5, a brand new T20I document on the Pretoria Test venue, when he was put in to bat and amassed a formidable complete.
The 34-year-old from St Lucia set the West Indies document for the quickest century, achieved off 39 balls, eight fewer than Chris Gayle’s earlier greatest mark.
Charles scored 118 runs from 46 balls, after which South Africa’s greatest bowler Marco Johnson took him to three for 52. He hit 11 sixes – half of West Indies’ complete for the innings – which equaled the document 22 in an innings set by Afghanistan in opposition to Ireland three years earlier.
Charles was ably supported by Kyle Mayers (51) in a 135-run second-wicket partnership, adopted by Romario Shepherd’s 41 not out.
South Africa began with a bang in reply and made one other T20 document by scoring 150 runs with out loss within the first 10 overs.
De Kock took 43 balls to succeed in his century, however went straight after ending a gap partnership of 152 with Reeza Hendricks, who scored 68 off 28 balls.
“I later told Riza that we did something special there. I have been looking for a T20 hundred for a while and to do it on my home ground was something special,” de Kock stated.
The pair managed to cut back the required run charge, permitting skipper Aiden Markram (38 not out) at hand his facet a outstanding victory with seven balls to spare.
“It was a very crazy game. When we came to bowl we thought we had done enough. They put the pressure on from the first ball and we didn’t respond,” stated West Indies captain Rovman Powell.
The batsman-friendly pitch noticed him hit a complete of 35 sixes and 46 fours in a run feast to an enthusiastic crowd, taking the very best complete in a T20 International to 517.
South Africa tied the three-match T20I sequence with the final match being performed on the Wanderers in Johannesburg on Tuesday.
West Indies received the primary match by three wickets on Saturday.
With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
