Introduction: Shepherd, Buran

South Africa’s total of 4/108 failed to make
any significant individual contributions
in the rain-soaked T20I final.

West Indies 116-2 (Hope 42, Pooran 35, Hetmyer 31)
defeated South Africa 108-4 (Stubbs 40,
Shepherd 2-14) by eight wickets in the DLS format.

The West Indies won the T20I series handsomely,
highlighting their era of dominance over
South Africa in the format. Since March 2023,

they have faced South Africa 10 times in T20Is
and won eight games, including back-to-back
3-0 series wins on either side of the T20 World Cup.

Their last win came in a short game in Trinidad.
The final game of this series started an
hour later than 3:00 pm due to rain,

but no overs were lost at the start of the game.
There was another break in the weather midway

through the fifth over of the South African innings,
which lasted another 70 minutes and
was reduced to 13 overs per team.

Plugs on top

Stubbs faced just four balls as he pulled
McCoy over the back foot for the first
six before hitting a full ball over cover.

Stubbs scored 16 off three balls and finished
the innings with 40-15 to take South
Africa past the 100-run mark.

Mapaka learns the hard way

Mapaka couldn’t finish the over quickly,
sending one ball and another before Pooran

hit him for the third six to send the West
Indies into the chase.
Mapaka’s first over scored 22 runs.

Hetmyer is gone

It was the first T20I of the year but
Hetmir looked unfazed as he stood up.
It took seven balls to find the first boundary,

One that missed the outside edge of Lizard Williams, but after that the runs were easy. Hetmyer hit Mafaka’s short ball over long leg for a six, sent Othneil Baartman to either end of the pitch and finished the over with a four in a row over the middle of the pitch. He was the senior partner in a half-century partnership with Hope, scoring 31 runs in 17 balls and ensuring West Indies finished on top.