With just 30 overs feasible on a Trinidad rain-shortened fourth day of play against the West Indies, South Africa took control of the Test match. After the batsmen’ resistance on Day 3 to stay at the crease, Kagiso Rabada and Keshav Maharaj took care of the final six wickets in just twenty-four overs. West Indies, who were quite well-positioned at 145/4, collapsed, losing six wickets for 88 runs and folding at 233. The sole bright spot on an otherwise dismal day for the hosts at the cricket was Jomel Warrican’s 32-ball 35.
Following lengthy delays due to weather, Jason Holder struck first ball well, driving it through the covers for four off Aiden Markram. Two overs later, off the same bowler, he repeated it over mid-off. When the game first began, Temba Bavuma stuck to spin alongside Markram and Maharaj. Markram succeeded in his move when he castled Holder, who was playing for the wrong line. The next man, Joshua da Silva, was out three balls later, holing out to mid-on.
Kemar Roach and Kavem Hodge had to live in peril at the crease, constantly on the verge of South Africa’s shelling. Rabada reappeared after 16 overs of spin and struck straight away, getting Hodge caught at first slip. A few overs later, Gudakesh Motie was out.
Using a border off Rabada, Warrican adopted an assertive strategy. In an attempt to give his side some impetus again, he followed it up with two sixes off Maharaj. However, wickets kept falling as the elite South African pacer trapped Roach leg before. Warrican and Jayden Seales added a few more boundaries before the former tried an audacious drive that finished the innings by cutting it onto the off-stump.
South Africa got things started with a bad delivery bowled by Kemar Roach down the legside that raced to the boundary. In the third over, Markram struck back-to-back boundaries to take the lead. Following a four-minute square cut race, Roach overpitched the next delivery, which Markram drove through the covers.
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In the last over of the day, Tony de Zorzi struck a streaky boundary off Seales. The next ball was edged out by Seales, but Hodge dropped the regulation chance at slip. He discovered the edge off Markram, which fell short of Holder at second slip, two deliveries later. After that exciting end to the day, South Africa emerged unscathed.
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