After finishing Day 1 at 128/4 and leading by 31 runs, South Africa got off to a faltering start as Rassie van der Dussen who played the anchor role, missed his fifty by four runs before edging a Jason Holder delivery to gully.
Quinton de Kock played his swashbuckling knock but lacked partners at the other end. The Proteas lost wickets at regular intervals only to position themselves at 233/8. It was then, when De Kock decided to take as much strike as possible and not expose the weakness of the tail with Anrich Nortje. As a result, De Kock kept plundering from one side with occasional boundaries and sixes while Nortje made sure he played lesser balls and let the wicketkeeper-batsman exploit the opposition.
The two put 79 runs on board, out of which Nortje only scored seven runs. However, in a turn of events, Holder bowled a talismanic delivery to dismiss Nortje when the latter was caught at gully by Shai Hope.
Despite his heroic persistence, De Kock couldn’t reach the 150-run milestone since the last batter, Lungi Ngidi, had to walk back to the pavilion for a duck. Nevertheless, De Kock smashed an unflappable 170-ball 141 laced with 12 boundaries and seven sixes.
Thus, SA ended their first innings at 322/10 and took a lead of 225 runs. Holder was the star bowler for the Windies as he bagged four crucial wickets in his 20.5 overs.
Coming in to bat for the second time, the Caribbean side had a web of deception spun around them, due to which their skipper Kraigg Brathwaite and his partner Kieron Powell couldn’t do much to trouble the scorers. Rabada and Nortje played their role to perfection by striking two scalps each and not allowing the hosts to build any major partnership.
West Indies put up a paltry 82/4 at stumps on Day 2 with Roston Chase (21) and Jermaine Blackwood (10) trying their best to have a durable collaboration.
