Times Media
TELFORD VICE, Cape Town
WEST Indies won the battle of the fourth one-day international against SA at St George’s Park on Sunday, but David Miller won the war.
With the series already owned by SA, the Windies won a thrilling contest by one wicket. A batting line-up without Hashim Amla were limited to 262/8. An attack missing Dale Steyn, Vernon Philander and Imran Tahir conceded defeat with nine balls left unbowled. Andre Russell won the match by blasting an unbeaten 64 off 40 balls.
“We fought hard right until the end,” AB de Villiers said. “We had some good moments and some not so good moments but we came out on the wrong side of things. Sometimes you can try too hard.”
None of should matter to South Africans who are not De Villiers. What should matter was that Miller scored his maiden century in ODIs, a measured 130 not out during which he made the most of his strengths and overcame his weaknesses.
Like everything SA will do until February 15, when they begin their World Cup campaign against Zimbabwe in Hamilton, Miller’s innings will be seen through the prism of that looming challenge.
Despite SA’s dominance over the Windies, questions remain over the dependability of their middle order. Miller provided the closest thing to an answer on Sunday.
Only twice on his way to his hundred did he hit two fours in a single over. In the 19th, bowled by the pacy Russell, a crisp back foot drive through the covers and a meaty pull scampered to the fence. In the 32nd, Miller reached 50 with an extra cover drive off Sheldon Cottrell that needed a misfield to reach the rope. Then he edged Cottrell’s next ball past third man for four.
Only once he had reached his century, with a legside nudge for two off Jason Holder in the 48th, did Miller hit a six - over long-off in the same over. Before the innings was over, Miller had hoisted two more sixes.
It was that kind of innings, a tapestry of things done well and others done less well. But the fact that Miller was there at the end, having arrived after SA shambled to to 32/3 in the seventh over and stayed to face 133 balls, said the most.
If Miller makes his name at the World Cup, he will remember his performance on Sunday as an important part of that success.
JP Duminy, meanwhile, faced 68 balls - a more important number than the 43 he scored or the three fours he hit. Just 17 balls had previously gone Duminy’s way in the series, which is not the ideal way to come back from more than a month out of action with a knee problem.
Farhaan Behardien also answered questions, at least partially. His smart catch in the covers to remove Chris Gayle and his jagging inswinger that took out Marlon Samuels’ leg stump hints at why he is in the World Cup squad.
De Villiers, too, had a day to remember; not for the 19 he scored but for his captaincy nous. He brought Duminy on to bowl the seventh over and the off-spinner dismissed Gayle with his sharply turning first ball.
SA’s captain got it right again when Behardien trapped Denesh Ramdin in front with his fifth ball of the match, and removed Samuels with the second delivery of his later spell.
So SA lost. So what? Sometimes, answered questions mean more than winning.
While questions continue to grow about Rilee Rossouw and Kyle Abbott, whose ODI records were attrocious before being selected for the CWC15 squad, and continue to get worse since their selection!
CSA, Hudson, Russell Domingo and Allan Donal have a lot of explaining to do to justify how and why Abbott was selected ahead of Lonwabo Tsotsobe.