CAPE TOWN // Simon Harmer and Dale Steyn shared seven wickets to negate a lengthy rain delay and set up South Africa for victory over the West Indies in the third and final Test at Newlands yesterday.
Harmer took four for 82 and claimed the key wicket of Marlon Samuels (74), helping Steyn to run through the West Indian middle and lower order and bowl the tourists out for 215 in their second innings.
Needing just 124 runs to win the match and claim a 2-0 series victory, South Africa went to stumps on nine for the loss of Alviro Petersen’s wicket. The opener was bowled by Sulieman Benn for a duck.
Persistent rain meant that no play was possible during the morning, but it finally gave way to sunshine after lunch and, after an extensive mop-up operation, the umpires scheduled a 53-over extended session.
Leon Johnson and Samuels had been largely untroubled by conditions on the third evening as they added an unbroken 61 to leave West Indies 88 for two overnight, but the fresh moisture gave the South African seam bowlers something to work with on Day 4.
Morne Morkel made it count in the third over when he had Johnson caught at slip for 44, but Samuels and Shivnarine Chanderpaul battled through a testing spell to find more benign conditions on the other side.
The pair put on 87 for the fourth wicket to move West Indies to 182 for three and plant a seed of doubt in the home crowd’s minds, but it did not last.
“We knew that if we could just hang in there and break up that one partnership, the history of Newlands showed that a cluster of wickets could fall and we could break the door down,” Morkel said.
Samuels enjoyed a running battle with Harmer, but his bullish approach ultimately brought about his downfall when he tried to hit the off-spinner out of the park and was caught at long-on for 74.
“I think we just missed the moment – that was the moment in the game when everything fell away. We were building things nicely, and it was just an awful shot,” West Indies coach Stuart Williams said.
Once Samuels fell, Steyn had a 7.5-over spell that brought him three wickets for 23 runs, as a hint of reverse swing helped him bowl Jermaine Blackwood for 13, have Denesh Ramdin caught for a first-ball duck and then have Benn caught behind.
Harmer claimed the wickets of Jason Holder and Jerome Taylor in the space of three balls as the West Indies lost their last six wickets for 13 runs. Steyn finished with three for 75, as he and Harmer ended with identical match figures of seven for 153.
Follow us on Twitter at SprtNationalUAE
