After the stumps were brought down on day three of the third test match of the Sir Vivian Richards Trophy contested between the mighty West Indies and South Africa, it was in response to the Caribbean’s 329 runs at the end of the last day’s match that the African Proteas made a successful comeback of 421 runs at the expense of 10 wickets. After the early dismissal of the South African opener D. Elgar, the Proteas seemed to be panting initially. However, the other opener Alviro Peterson provided a second sided strong support, which was the need of the hour. Peterson scored 42 off 85 balls. Even Faf du Plessis scored a vital innings of 68 runs off 122 balls and laid the road for the Afros to success. But the most convincing and the astounding innings of the day, or rather the match was played down with ease by the wicket keeper cum batsman of South Africa, A. B. DeVilliers scoring 148 runs after facing just 194 deliveries. DeVilliers was the pride of South Africa for the day as he managed to pull the Afros throughout the third day and also did manage to put up an added leveraging effort to make up a 92 run lead for the match of the West Indies. Among the West Indies bowlers, J. O. Holders and M. N. Samuels were the only two to take a couple of wickets each. The rest of the bowlers ended on a below the average rank by taking only a wicket each and that too after being proved pretty much economical. It was Samuels who finally managed to knock off A. B. DeVilliers. It was a 76.3 kph delivery bowled down the pitch, but it had not got the legs, but instead tried to clear long on, got too far underneath the ball and found more height than distance. The long on steadies under the ball, although it popped out on the first grab but it fell down by his chest and he kept his calm and composure.

It was much later, in the latter half of the day’s play that the West Indies came to bat the second time in the match for their second innings, keeping in mind the 92 runs trail, scoring 88 runs off 2 wickets losing Braithwaite and Smith and Johnson and Samuels taking the charge from thereafter. At the end of the day, the spectators of Newlands, Cape Town, South Africa viewed their children taking the advantage of the day, though a lot of the play is still left and the game is on.

122.4 Overs, R/R: 3.44

Batsman	r	b	4s	6s	sr
Alviro Petersen run out (Jermaine Blackwood)	42	85	3	1	49.41
Dean Elgar lbw b Jason Holder	8	30	1	0	26.67
Faf du Plessis st Denesh Ramdin b Sulieman Benn	68	122	8	0	55.74
Hashim Amla (C) c Denesh Ramdin b Jason Holder	63	150	7	0	42.00
AB de Villiers (W) c Shannon Gabriel b Marlon Samuels	148	194	15	1	76.29
Temba Bavuma b Shannon Gabriel	15	41	2	0	36.59
Stiaan van Zyl lbw b Marlon Samuels	33	63	3	0	52.38
Vernon Philander run out (Jason Holder)	0	7	0	0	0.00
Simon Harmer lbw b Jerome Taylor	10	48	2	0	20.83
Dale Steyn run out (Leon Johnson)	0	1	0	0	0.00
Morne Morkel not out	4	5	0	0	80.00

Extras (b – 0, w – 0, no – 0, lb – 7, penalty – 0)

Total

421 (3.44 runs per over)

Fall of Wickets

1-48 (Dean Elgar, 11.5 ov), 2-104 (Alviro Petersen, 27.1 ov), 3-157 (Faf du Plessis, 49.1 ov), 4-254 (Hashim Amla, 75.1 ov), 5-288 (Temba Bavuma, 86.5 ov), 6-384 (Stiaan van Zyl, 108.2 ov), 7-385 (Vernon Philander, 109.4 ov), 8-408 (Dale Steyn, 120.4 ov), 9-421 (AB de Villiers, 122.4 ov),

Bowlers	o	m	r	wkt	wd	nb	econ
Jerome Taylor	20	2	80	1	1	1	4.00
Shannon Gabriel	17	2	64	1	3	7	3.76
Jason Holder	24	4	87	2	1	2	3.63
Marlon Samuels	16.4	0	68	2	0	0	4.15
Sulieman Benn	45	9	115	1	0	0	2.56

34.0 Overs, R/R: 2.59

Batsman	r	b	4s	6s	sr
Kraigg Brathwaite b Simon Harmer	16	45	1	0	35.56
Devon Smith c AB de Villiers b Morne Morkel	7	36	1	0	19.44
Leon Johnson Batting	37	66	5	0	56.06
Marlon Samuels Batting	26	57	4	0	45.61
Shivnarine Chanderpaul
Denesh Ramdin (C)(W)
Jermaine Blackwood
Jason Holder
Jerome Taylor
Sulieman Benn
Shannon Gabriel