Legendary West Indies captain, Clive Lloyd, believes that the fighting spirit and professional display that led to a 2-0 series win, in Bangladesh, has spread to the rest of the team.
So far, the general consensus is that the regional team has, at times, been fairly impressive in the ongoing series against Sri Lanka. They battled to a 2-1 win in the T20 series, but then swept the visitors aside in a confident display during the One Day International series.
Lloyd believes some of that confidence stems from the performance of the Kraigg Brathwaite unit, which was understrength and underestimated heading to last month’s tour of Bangladesh but battled to a surprise 2-0 Test series win.
“I believe it is because of the way our players played in Bangladesh, that it trickled down. They put their head down and batted intelligently and won,” Lloyd told the Mason and Guest radio program.
“It galvanized those other guys to do the same. We had 274, 270-odd and we looked good. We batted well. (Things were tighter) in the T20s but we won out because we are getting that professional attitude back and that I think it is because of the guys winning in Bangladesh.”
The team will look to take the momentum into the two-match Test series, which will get underway on Sunday.
South Africa fall short of another big run chase as Windies take series
West Indies avoided a repeat of their remarkable, record-breaking defeat in the second T20I against South Africa by clinging on to win the series decider by seven runs.
The Windies had been on the wrong end of a historic run chase in the sides' previous encounter, the highest scoring Twenty20 match since the format was introduced.
But there would be no repeat in Johannesburg on Tuesday, even if Reeza Hendricks again made life difficult for the tourists after another strong Windies score of 220-8.
Hendricks was credited by centurion Quinton de Kock with inspiring the Proteas fightback in the second match, having contributed 68 off just 28 balls.
Missing De Kock's support, it was a one-man effort this time as Hendricks scored 83 off 43, not quite enough with South Africa falling short on 213-6.
West Indies had posted the second-highest T20I total not to include a single fifty but were also themselves grateful for the work of one batter in particular.
In a blockbuster conclusion to the first innings, Romario Shepherd had scored 26 from the final over to top-score with 44 from only 22 balls – the knock that ultimately proved the difference.
Phenomenal finish sees Windies safe
South Africa handed the ball to Kagiso Rabada with some confidence ahead of the 20th over, with the bowling superstar having restricted the Windies to 2-24 from his previous three overs.
Yet Shepherd, twice put down by De Kock, smashed Rabada all around the ground to set a daunting target. As a result, the Proteas needed to match Shepherd with 26 off the last but could only manage 18.
Repeat proves beyond Proteas
While Hendricks remained in the middle, it appeared very possible South Africa would pull off another stunning recovery. It would have been a record-breaking fifth successful 200-run chase in the format.
However, West Indies kept their nerve, crucially having Hendricks caught by captain Rovman Powell at long on in the 19th over. The Windies still have not lost a T20I series in South Africa, with two wins and a draw.
Powell saves 5-year-old ball-boy from injury by avoiding boundary collision during second South Africa T20I
West Indies captain Rovman Powell got injured while trying to save a 5-year-old ball boy at the edge of the boundary area during the second T20 International against South Africa on Sunday, March 26.
Powell, while chasing a ball towards the boundary, avoided a potentially catastrophic collision and chose to get hurt himself.
The incident occurred in the third over of the South Africa chase when Quinton de Kock hit the ball towards the long off boundary.
Powell gave chase and was inside the dive length to pull the ball back into the field before it touched the boundary. The West Indies captain, however, saw a five-year-old ball boy trying to get to the edge of line and catch the ball and decided to abort the chase in the last minute.
The West Indies captain then jumped over the boy and the boundary line and crashed into the LED boards, before toppling over.
Visibly shaken from the incident, Powell had to be treated at the side-line and took a decent amount of time to get back into the field.
As for the game, South Africa won by six wickets after pulling off a record chase. The West Indies posted 258-5 off their 20 overs and the South Africans needed only 18.5 overs to reach 259-4.
The third T20I takes place at Wanderers in Johannesburg on Tuesday.
Harpy Eagles lead by 10.2 points ahead of final round of 2022/23 West Indies Championship
The Guyana Harpy Eagles will take a 10.2-point lead into their fifth and final round game of the 2022/23 West Indies Championship against the Leeward Islands Hurricanes at Providence.
The Harpy Eagles defeated the Jamaica Scorpions by 228 runs in round four for their third win to move to 68.2 points.
Second-placed Windward Islands Volcanoes kept pace with the Harpy Eagles at the top with a six-wicket win over the Leeward Islands Hurricanes at the Brian Lara Stadium to move to 58 points.
Their opponents in the final round will be third-placed Barbados Pride, who have 50 points after beating the Trinidad & Tobago Red Force by seven wickets at the Queen’s Park Oval. That game will take place at the same venue.
The points table is rounded out by the Hurricanes (41.4), the Red Force (28.6) and the Jamaica Scorpions (21.2). The Red Force will play the Scorpions at the Brian Lara Stadium in the final round.
All games start on Wednesday at 9:00am Jamaica Time (10:00 am ECT).
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