Spinners shine as South Africa level series
Sent out to bat, the Proteas posted a total of 166/7, which proved 16 too many for the hosts at St George’s.
The tourists enjoyed a lightning start to their innings as Reeza Hendricks and Quinton de Kock put on 73 runs for the opening stand before the latter fell to Kevin Sinclair (2/23) for 26 in the seventh over.
Sinclair struck again in the 10th over, trapping the dangerous Hendricks in front for 42 off 30 deliveries. At that stage, the Proteas were a healthy 96/2 in 10.2 overs but they failed to capitalise on the strong start.
From their final 10 overs, South Africa only managed 71 runs, with captain Temba Bavuma (46 off 33) scoring the bulk of them as Obed McCoy took 3/25. After the top three of Hendricks, de Kock and Bavuma, the next highest score by a batter was David Miller’s 11.
A very strong start for South Africa but it's the West Indies who go in at the break smiling.
— ICC (@ICC) June 27, 2021
Temba Bavuma (46) and Reeza Hendricks (42) help the Proteas to post 166/7.#WIvSA pic.twitter.com/tmGwtkzNq3
The failure to build on that start looked set to cost South Africa as the West Indies raced out of the blocks in their reply.
Having belted a six off just the second ball of the innings, Evin Lewis charged to 21 off the first 15 balls he faced before having his stumps blown apart by Anrich Nortje (1/27) in the fourth over.
There was a steady procession of wickets from there as the West Indies slumped from 31/0 in the fourth over to 72/5 by the end of the 11th.
Lewis was shortly followed back to the pavilion by Chris Gayle (8), accounted for by Kagiso Rabada (3/37), before George Linde removed Nicholas Pooran (9) and Andre Russell (5) either side of Tabraiz Shamsi’s dismissal of Kieron Pollard (1).
South Africa see out a tense final over to beat the West Indies by 16 runs and tie up the T20I series!
— ICC (@ICC) June 27, 2021
George Linde's 2/19 sees him win player of the match 👏#WIvSA pic.twitter.com/i7iOHrX2yC
Despite the best efforts of Fabian Allen, who hit five sixes in his 12-ball 34, the West Indies failed to recover from there.
Linde (2/19) and Shamsi (1/16) were the stars of the show in the second innings, registering combined figures of 3/35 from their eight overs.
The two sides next meet on Tuesday.