MASTER blaster Chris Gayle again moered the Proteas bowlers all over the park as the West Indies sealed a three-match T20I series 2-0 yesterday at Wanderers with a successive four-wicket win.
Picking up where he left off innie Kaap on Friday, Gayle smashed a memorable 90 runs off 41 balls – which included nine fours and seven sixes – as the Windies successfully chased South Africa’s impressive enough score of 231/7.
Proteas skipper Faf du Plessis earlier blasted a geharde119 to break the previous SA highest T20 international score of 117 set by Richard Levi in 2012.
But Du Plessis’s heroics, along with that of David Miller’s highest international score of 47, at the Bullring were all in vain.
An exhibition in batting power from Gayle all but took the match from the hosts halfway through the visitors’ pursuit of the winning target.
At the halfway mark of their innings – 130/1 – the islanders were on course to achieve the highest successful run-chase in the shortest format.
And that they did when their captain, Darren Sammy, clipped seamer Marchant de Lange for six over square leg with four balls to spare.
The South Africans may have thought they could pull off a miracle when the Calypso kings lost their last five wickets for just 30 runs.
This, after Gayle and Marlon Samuels (60) look to be cruising with a dominant 152-run second-wicket partnership.
But Gayle’s whirlwind knock came to end when he nicked a slower ball from David Wiese to wicketkeeper Morne van Wyk.
And the home fans’ hopes rose two overs later when Samuels was back in the dugout after he picked out long on. Kieron Pollard, Dwayne Bravo and Andre Russell followed soon after.
But the Windies held on for their second win on the trot after Friday’s win at Newlands.