South Africa will have to bowl out of their skins to beat the West Indies after a disastrous start with the bat saw them limp their way to 122-8.
This was ugly to watch and is the sort of collapse that results in uncomfortable questions being asked, providing the Proteas fail to defend their total.
Everyone knew it was going to be tough adjusting to the slow, two-paced wicket in Nagpur after the quick wicket South Africa played on in Mumbai, and yet they failed miserably and collapsed dramatically against the West Indies slow bowling attack.
Quinton de Kock (47) was the main exception, but not before he ran out Hashim Amla for one off the third ball of the innings. De Kock shared a vital 50-run partnership with David Wiese (28) during the middle overs, but it was always going to be tough getting to a competitive total after slumping to 47-5 inside nine overs.
West Indies opened the bowling with spinner Samuel Badree and also employed Chris Gayle early. Faf du Plessis mistimed one to mid-off before Rilee Rossouw, coming in at No 4 ahead of AB de Villiers, fell to Gayle with an awful shot to get caught at point.
AB de Villiers looked solid for a while before he was cleaned bowled by Dwayne Bravo for 10. David Miller followed in the next over, playing for spin where there was none and seeing the ball go straight into his stumps.
Terrible scenes if you’re a South African fan, but absolute delight from a West Indies point of view.
De Kock and Wiese brought some stability for a while before the former also got bowled trying to sweep a delivery on his leg-stump.
Wiese skied one off Bravo which left Chris Morris and Aaron Phangiso, in for Kyle Abbott in this game, to scrape around for a defendable total.
It’s difficult to know what a good score is on this wicket, but you get the feeling 122 won’t be enough, unless West Indies suffer a similar collapse to South Africa.
