KINGSTON: Johnson Charles played a scintillating knock to help West Indies thump South Africa in the third T20I and complete the 3-0 whitewash here at Sabina Park on Sunday.
While chasing 164, Charles inspired the Caribbean side to a crushing victory with 6.1 overs to spare after losing only two wickets.
Charles along with West Indies’ stand-in captain Brandon King gave the home side a tremendous start with a 92-run opening partnership in only 6.4 overs, with the former scoring the majority of runs.
Charles scored a smashing 69-run knock from only 26 balls, which featured 14 boundaries including five sixes before he fell to Nqabayomzi Peter.
Kyle Mayers joined King and carried the momentum until Gerald Coetzee removed King, who scored 44 off 28 with the help of four sixes and two boundaries.
Mayers remained unbeaten with 36 runs from 23 balls, laced with four sixes, guiding West Indies to an impressive victory ahead of the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup 2024.
Earlier, South Africa opted to bat first and put 163-7 on board in their allocated 20 overs with skipper Rassie van der Dussen being the top-scorer with 51 off 31.
His innings featured five sixes and one boundary, while Wiaan Mulder was another notable contributor with 36 runs.
West Indies pacer Obed McCoy, who was named in the World Cup squad as a replacement for injured Jason Holder, topped the bowling charts with 3-39, while Shamar Joseph and Gudakesh Motie picked two wickets.
“Happy with my own performance,” the West Indies skipper said. “I would’ve liked to carry my bat through the end though. It was an important 3-0 win, last series before the World Cup, so important preparation and good momentum going into the World Cup.
“Our bowling performances were very pleasing, we had consistency throughout,” King added.
Meanwhile, South Africa’s captain expressed his disappointment following the clean-sweep loss and credited West Indies for outclassing them.
“Thoroughly disappointing. Not what we had in mind coming here,” Van der Dussen said. “From the first game, they were all over us. We couldn’t adapt, and today we couldn’t find answers with the ball. Not happy with that.
“The chat coming into today was that you can chat all you want but have to deliver in the middle. We couldn’t do that today. Time for talking is done, we’ll need our experienced people coming in to take more responsibility. There’s no excuse,” he added.
“We were caught off guard how they played with the bat and they were better with the ball as simple as that. We were taught a few lessons.”
READ: Jason Holder ruled out of T20 World Cup, replaced by Obed McCoy
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