Athanaze, rain secure draw for WI in Trinidad

South Africa Captain Temba Bavuma was left to lament Trinidad’s inclement weather as his team finished five wickets short of victory during the first Test against the West Indies.

The teams lost play to rain on all five days of the Port of Spain Test, with a total of 142 overs lost overall across the match as both South Africa and the West Indies missed an excellent opportunity to rise the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) standings.

The match finished as a draw under fading light at Queen’s Park Oval, with the West Indies finishing 97 runs short of an unlikely win and South Africa failing to take the final five wickets that would have delivered 12 WTC points to the victor.

The draw was the first in Men’s Test cricket in more than 12 months and sees South Africa remain in seventh place on the WTC standings with a 26.67 win-loss percentage and the West Indies stay in ninth at 20.83 percent.

South Africa had tried their best to force a positive result by declaring at 173 for three prior to lunch on the final day but yet another rain delay and a dogged innings of 92 from Alick Athanaze foiled any hopes the Proteas had of clinching the victory.

The second and final Test commences in Guyana on Thursday.

Chief scores: 
South Africa: 357 and 173/3 decl (Tristan Stubbs 68, Tony de Zorzi 45, Jomel Warrican 2/57) 
West Indies: 233 and 201/5 (Alick Athanaze 92, Jason Holder 31 n.o, Keshav Maharaj 4/88). 
Agencies