South Africa team pose with the trophy after winning on Day 3 of the 2nd Test match between West Indies and South Africa at Guyana National Stadium in Providence, Guyana.
| Photo Credit: AFP

Keshav Maharaj took three wickets to lead South Africa to a 40-run win over West Indies in the second test in Georgetown on Saturday and become his country’s most successful spin bowler.

South Africa completed victory inside three days after bowling West Indies out for 222, having set them a target of 263 to win the match.

The rain-affected first game in Trinidad was drawn but the second test victory means South Africa have won 10 successive series against the Windies.

Maharaj, named man of the series, finished with 3-37, going past Hugh Tayfield’s tally of 170 test wickets to set a new standard for South African spin bowling.

Fast bowler Kagiso Rababa, who also took three wickets, is now on 299 test victims.

It was a close call for the touring side in a low scoring match as the Windies fell agonisingly short.

They begun their chase with more than two days to play, but lost opener Mikyle Louis cheaply for four as he nicked a catch to Wiaan Mulder at slip off Rabada.

Captain Kraigg Brathwaite was the next man out but not before adding 42 runs with Keacy Carty for the second wicket.

When the experienced Jason Holder fell without scoring to leave west Indies on 104-6, it looked an uphill task for the home team.

Joshua da Silva and Gudakesh Motie, however, shared the best Windies partnership of the series, adding 77 runs to reduce the target to 82, before Motie was lbw to Maharaj for a test-best 45.

Maharaj trapped Da Silva lbw for 27 and a brilliant one- handed diving catch from skipper Temba Bavuma sent back Shamar Joseph before Maharaj had Jayden Seales was caught by close-in fielder David Bedingham.

South Africa had resumed in the moring on 223-5 with a 239-run lead but the 22-year-old Seales ran through the tail to return test best figures of 6-61 as the last five wickets fell for 22 runs.

England’s Jos Buttler and Moeen Ali, during a practice session ahead of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup match between Sri Lanka and England, at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium (KSCA), in Bengaluru on October 25, 2023.
| Photo Credit: MURALI KUMAR K

In the football World Cup, there are rungs of respectability for teams exiting the competition. You can suffer the ignominy of going out in the group-stage, the round-of-32, the round-of-16; or you can have the tags of an honourable quarterfinalist, a worthy semifinalist or a deserved finalist attached to your name.

Cricket World Cup, in contrast, is a boom or bust tournament. The difference between teams finishing fourth and fifth is a semifinal place and a group-stage ouster. On Thursday, at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Sri Lanka and England will clash with the singular aim keeping alive their hopes of the former.

Unaffordable

Both Sri Lanka and England have lost three of their four matches thus far and sit seventh and eighth respectively in a 10-team World Cup. Keeping in mind the fact that they are yet to face table-topper India, neither can afford a loss.

England has to recover from a 229-run shellacking at the hands of South Africa. Its batting hasn’t clicked, skipper Jos Buttler has totalled less than 100 runs in four games and the bowling has been mauled by South Africa, New Zealand and Afghanistan alike. The feeling may well be that England can only go up from here, but it cannot take Sri Lanka lightly.

Proud record

The Island Nation hasn’t lost to England in any of the four World Cup games since the turn of the millennium. Last week’s five-wicket victory over the Netherlands may not be ideal preparation for Sri Lanka, but it would have certainly banished the bad memories from three chastening defeats.

The last time England visited the Chinnaswamy for ODIs back in 2011, it lost a match after scoring 327 (Ireland) and tied a match by scoring 338 (India). This World Cup, Sri Lanka has conceded 428 and 345-run totals. Another run fest looks likely and England would finally want to finish on the right side of it.