West Indies vs South Africa, 1st T20I at Kingston, WI vs SA, May 23 2024 - Ball by Ball Commentary

This was fun. Great quotes from the captains in the post-match presentation too. If West Indies can use their knowledge of the conditions as well as they did today, they'll be amazing at the World cup. They can also bag a series win and continue to get their players rolling. So can South Africa if they can come out and play proactively, and maybe get some luck at the toss. Firdose will file the report soon, check it out. Back-to-back games coming in a couple of days. See you for those, bye for now.

Brandon King, WI captain and POTM: Important to win, we played well. Very happy with how we played. I knew the conditions well, which was an advantage. Knew we had to go hard against the new ball as it'd get tougher later. We had 200-220 in mind as we had wickets in mind but fell short on a tough pitch. Motie is a skillful, smart bowler. Changes pace well. Forde has a lot of confidence and did well to come back. Early wickets should give him confidence. (Aim in the series) We're coming from a training camp and had chats on how we want to play in the WC. Bowlers' consistency was impressive today.

Rassie van der Dussen, SA captain: We took long to get into the pitch. They won the game in the first innings. It's a 150-par score wicket. Credit to King and how he played. (Bowling in second half of the first innings) WI played differently to what we anticipated, had they not started so well it'd have been different but we need to learn to adapt quicker. Andile is very clever and skilled, and can use the conditions well. Baartman is one of the guys who summed up conditions the fastest today. He's skiddy, can get low bounce which can be lethal. Big weapon for WC. Three wickets in our powerplay was bad. Lost wickets in the middle too, their spinners bowled well. Credit to them. Hendricks showed how we should have played. He's a world-class act. He'll take confidence from this, will take a lot going forward. In the first ten, we were lax in executing our plans.

For SA, QDK's form might be a concern. His two-ball stay looked amateurish almost. Rickelton and Breetzke falling in the powerplay didn't help. Hendricks held the innings together, he was the only SA batter to find the middle regularly but it wasn't enough.

5:29pm Sweet win for WI and King, in front of his home crowd. The pitch started playing tricks in the second half of the first innings and the hosts used those learnings well in the chase. The spinners were brilliant, Motie's 3-25 is likely to earn him the POTM. Shamar, the big name, was consistent with his lengths early on but couldn't nail his yorkers at the death. He did get his maiden T20I wicket. Forde was great early and at the death. Chase and Hosein could've bowled more but didn't need to. Both teams used seven bowlers, an expected move given they want to give game time ahead of the world cup.

Forde to finish. He's asked to reload after starting to run in

52 off 11 needed. All but done. Around btw

Joseph returns with 61 needed off three

Neville Smeda: "West Indies have done well at keeping Hendricks off strike and applying pressure to the other batters. The opener has faced just 36 balls out of the 96 bowled. "