Proteas happy to move ahead in T20I series against Windies

Proteas captain Temba Bavuma was very happy to see his charges claim a confidence-boosting win to move 2-1 up in the five-match T20I series against the West Indies after a one-run win in the third match at the National Cricket Stadium in St George’s, Grenada, on Tuesday.

Quinton de Kock led the Proteas' batting effort with a 51-ball 72 as they posted 167 for eight batting first, before man-of-the-match Tabraiz Shamsi was the star of an impressive bowling effort as they limited the Windies to 166 for seven in response.

“It is a big confidence booster for us as a team, these are the type of situations that we like to find ourselves in and obviously finding a way to get over the line,” said Bavuma.

“In the past games have slipped in our hands, so it’s a massive confidence booster for us but we know that there is still a lot to go here in the series.”

Other than De Kock’s contribution and a decent 32 off 24 balls from Rassie van der Dussen, the Proteas for the third match in a row couldn’t kick on from a good position, as this time they slipped from 146 for three after 17 overs to their final total.

“I am still confident that 180 is a good score to get on this wicket, I think we have to say that it does get hard at the back end of the innings and I think it showed for both sides,” added Bavuma.

“But I think from our point of view we will still be striving to get as close to 180 as we can and if don't, we believe in our bowlers that they will take us home.”

Shamsi enjoyed a fantastic night with the ball to finish with superb figures of 2-13 in his four overs, having not been hit for a single boundary and delivering 11 dot balls as he tied down the Windies' chase during the middle overs.

“It was nice to put in a performance for the team, but the whole bowling unit was unbelievable today...the bowlers delivered, so I am really happy with this win,” said Shamsi.

“As a bowling unit we had a hard chat after the first game, a lot of people gave us a lot of criticism but people forget that we’re a young group, it doesn’t necessarily mean that we don’t have the skills, we probably just need a bit more experience playing together and we can see the results of that.

“It’s three games together that this bowling unit has played and you can see the boys are learning very quickly.”

The Proteas now move onto the fourth T20I at the same ground on Thursday where they will be looking to wrap up the series with a match to play.