West Indies vs South Africa 2021, 5th T20I- Match Preview

West Indies and South Africa are set to play the fifth and the final T20I in Grenada on Saturday. The series is poised at 2-2 with the final game to be the decider of the series. West Indis won the fourth game after the Protean side won the second and the third on the bounce after losing the first game.

Both sides are in the bottom half of the table in the ICC T20I rankings. South Africa are placed sixth in the table while the Windies are placed 10th. However, this does not justify the strength of the current squad with all their T20 specialists’ ack in the side. The likes of Chris Gayle, Kieron Pollard, Andre Russell, Dwayne Bravo all of whom were a part of the 2016 T20 World Cup-winning squad are all part of this team.

West Indies vs South Africa 5th T20I: Match Preview

South Africa

South Africa are chasing a T20I series win for the first time since 2019. They last won a series in the shortest format against Sri Lanka in March 2019. Since then, they have lost two series each against England and Pakistan and one against Australia. They draw a series against India. In 14 head to head with the Windies side, ahead of the fifth and final game, the Proteans are ahead by 8-6.

Full Squad

Quinton de Kock(w), Janneman Malan, Temba Bavuma(c), Rassie van der Dussen, Heinrich Klaasen, David Miller, George Linde, Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi, Tabraiz Shamsi, Anrich Nortje, Andile Phehlukwayo Lizaad Williams, Aiden Markram, Sisanda Magala, Bjorn Fortuin, Wiaan Mulder, Kyle Verreynne, Reeza Hendricks, Beuran Hendricks

West Indies

West Indies won their previous T20I series against Sri Lanka. They won a three-match T20I series 2-1, followed by an ODI series 3-0. Heading into the T20Is, the Windies lost the two-match Test series against South Africa. They won the opening T20I and lost the next two before winning the fourth and leveling the series 2-2.

In recent times, the Windies have played the shorter formats of the game better than the longest format. They won the fourth T20I to set up a series decider in the fifth game. Dwayne Bravo was the architect of this Windies victory with a four-wicket haul after Kieron Pollard’s unbeaten 51 which took the side to 167/6.

Full Squad

Evin Lewis, Lendl Simmons, Chris Gayle, Shimron Hetmyer, Nicholas Pooran (wk), Kieron Pollard (c), Andre Russell, Fabian Allen, Dwayne Bravo, Obed McCoy, Fidel Edwards, Jason Holder, Kevin Sinclair, Andre Fletcher, Hayden Walsh, Akeal Hosein, Sheldon Cottrell, Oshane Thomas

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