Faf fights hard, but Gayle grabs glory for Windies

Times Media

TELFORD VICE, Cape Town

“GET him out, please,” was what Faf du Plessis told the unfortunates who had to bowl to Chris Gayle in the first T20 between SA and West Indies at Newlands on Friday. At the Wanderers on Sunday, Denesh Ramdin would have said something similar to his players - about Du Plessis.

By the end of a mad few hours, that invocation would have gone back and forth a few times before the Windies mounted a world record chase to win by four wickets with four balls to spare.

Du Plessis’ 119 launched the home side to a total of 231/7, but the visitors blasted a reply of 236/6 to win the series with a game in hand.

Gayle blazed 90 before misjudging a slower ball from David Wiese and being smartly caught behind by a diving Morne van Wyk. Gayle faced 41 balls and drilled nine fours and seven sixes.

With that, a game that had been careening West Indies’ way veered back towards the home side. Indeed, Wiese would have thought he had all but clinched victory in his next over when Marlon Samuels, who shared a stand of 152 with Gayle, holed out to long-on for 60.

Surely only Kieron Pollard could get the West Indians home from there, but Wiese removed him five balls later - also caught at long-on.

However, the game was still not in the bag for SA. Instead, cameos of 14 and 10 by Andre Russell and Dwayne Bravo set the scene for a grand finale.

Bravo’s dismissal meant West Indies needed 23 off the last 14 balls. Eighteen of them flowed in a 19th over, bowled by Kyle Abbott, in which Darren Sammy slammed three fours. Sammy ended the match by heaving a full toss from Marchant de Lange over the square leg boundary for six.

Du Plessis, who describes himself as a “grinding” test batsman, had an opportunity to let his perfectly styled hair down. Neither a deflector nor a slogger but instead a proper player, he took that chance and then some.

He came to the crease five balls into SA’s innings and was dismissed with the last ball of the 19th over. His innings boomed off 56 balls with 11 fours and five sixes.

Du Plessis took nine balls to score his first dozen runs, but he let loose in the sixth over when he smashed Sulieman Benn for a six and three fours. In the 16th over, he repeated exactly that dose to Sheldon Cottrell.

Along the way, Du Plessis did the visitors a favour when he drove Russell down the pitch. The bowler used his foot to angle the ball onto the stumps at the non-striker’s end.

David Miller’s desperate dive back to the crease took him into safe territory but his bat was not grounded and he was run out.

That ended the stand at 105 and Miller’s chance to score only his second half-century in 26 innings in the shorter formats at 47 - a performance that would have stuck out more for its pugnacity were it not for Du Plessis’ masterclass.