Hope Century helps Windies win despite Bavuma’s best effort

New captain Shai Hope is unbeaten in a century as the West Indies beat hosts South Africa by 48 runs in their second one-day international.

After winning the toss and deciding to bat at Buffalo Park in east London, Hope’s superb 128 not out anchored the West Indies result of 8-335 in their 50 overs as he hit five fours in his 115-ball innings and hit seven sixes.

South Africa captain Temba Bavuma scored a career-best in the home team’s response with 144 balls from 118 balls, but they were eliminated in 41.4 overs with 287 balls as they tried to keep up with the required run-rate.

The first game at the same place was washed out on Thursday without a ball being bowled. The final game of the three-game series will be played in Potchefstroom on Tuesday.

“I thought it (the pitch) was a tough start,” Hope said at the post-game presentation. “Once you come in you have to go big. You have to play the situation. The credit has to go to the hitting partners who make it easy for me.”

West Indies started their innings quickly on a good run and managed to keep the momentum going as Hope found willing partners in Nicholas Pooran (39) and Rovman Powell (46).

South Africa handed ODI debuts to four players, batsmen Ryan Rickelton, Tony de Zorzi and Tristan Stubbs, and seaman Gerald Coetzee, and the latter proved to be the bowlers’ pick with numbers 3-57.

The home side went hard on goal from the start as Quinton de Kock (48 balls from 26) and Bavuma bowled, but when the former fell out none of the subsequent batters could match his quality.

2️⃣ Captains 2️⃣ Centurions 2️⃣7️⃣2️⃣ Runs#SAvWI #BePartOfIt pic.twitter.com/Vr6Z9o1LzH

— Proteas Men (@ProteasMenCSA) March 18, 2023

Bavuma was the ninth man and with him South Africa’s chances were lost.

“If we limited them to around 300, considering we got early wickets…” Bavuma said. “You can’t learn that anywhere else, it’s a valuable experience.”

The two teams are battling for the final automatic qualifying spot for this year’s ODI World Cup in India, with the Windies currently ranked 8th ahead of South Africa, but that streak does not count towards the qualifying process under the ICC’s ODI Super League system.