South Africa and the West Indies will travel to Cape Town for the third and final Test after rain and a wet outfield cut more than half the playing time from the second Test at St George's Park on Tuesday
Port Elizabeth: South Africa and the West Indies will travel to Cape Town for the third and final Test after rain and a wet outfield cut more than half the playing time from the second Test at St George's Park on Tuesday. No play was possible on the final day and the match ended with the West Indies on 275 for nine in their first innings in reply to South Africa's 417 for eight declared.
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South Africa take a 1-0 lead into the third Test starting on Friday. South African captain Hashim Amla said a result had been "on the cards" if there had been a full day's play possible on Tuesday. "We were hoping to get the last wicket quickly and then set them a target with 50 or 60 overs to go."
Amla said he was satisfied with South Africa's performance. He said the fact that only six overs were possible on the second day contributed to wickets falling when play resumed on day three. "We lost a lot of time when we were batting so we lost some wickets trying to make a game of it." Amla praised his bowlers.
"The West Indies had one good partnership but our seamers bowled exceptionally well." He said it was possible the loss of Tuesday's play might have helped the bowlers. "If the bowlers had to bowl all afternoon, there might have been some tired bodies with only two days before the next game. Now we will have some fresh bodies for Newlands."
West Indian captain Denesh Ramdin said the centuries scored by Marlon Samuels and man of the match Kraigg Brathwaite had given his team a lift. "Hopefully those two guys can kick on and guys like Shiv (Chanderpaul) and myself can back them up." Ramdin said the West Indies had bowled much better than they did in the first Test at Centurion.
"We bowled in the right areas and created some chances. Hopefully we can do something good in the next Test match. We have to look at our fielding and work on our catching." West Indian coach Stuart Williams said the team had been determined to improve after the first Test. "We showed that over the past couple of days," he said. "We had two centurions against the number one bowling attack in the world and our bowlers were more consistent."
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