NORTH SOUND, Antigua (CMC) — Captain Rovman Powell said West Indies’ batting effort in their Super Eight defeat to South Africa on Sunday was one to quickly forget, but said the surface at Sir Vivian Richards Stadium was a “difficult wicket” which left both teams struggling to adjust.

Asked to bat first in the do or die final match of group two, West Indies could only muster 135 for eight off their 20 overs, and South Africa won by three wickets under Duckworth-Lewis-Stern (DLS) after stumbling to a revised target of 123 off 17 overs following a one-and-quarter-hour rain break.

“I think credit has to be given to the boys; I think they fought to the very end,” said Powell who was dismissed for one to complete a poor outing in the tournament.

“As a batting group, this is one batting performance we’ll try our best to forget. We didn’t bat well, in the middle overs especially.

“I think it’s just a case of the wicket not being an easy wicket to bat on, to be honest. It needed a little bit more grit, a little bit more determination than we showed.

“If you should look on how both teams batted on it, even South Africa kind of struggled to get the 136 runs that we made. It wasn’t the easiest of surfaces but as players we have to adapt and come up with solutions.”

West Indies lost leading batsman Shai Hope and Nicholas Pooran cheaply, with only five runs on the board in the second over, but were lifted by the dependable Roston Chase who top scored with 52 from 42 deliveries.

Opener Kyle Mayers made 35 from 34 balls in his first game of the tournament but once his 81-run, third-wicket stand with Chase ended West Indies fell apart, with Powell, Sherfane Rutherford (1), and Andre Russell (15) of the remaining specialist batsmen all failing.

“You see both teams batting on the wicket. Obviously it wasn’t an easy wicket, especially to get a start on,” Powell said, “but I think in the middle overs we faltered. We [lost] wickets in clusters — the first time for the competition we have lost wickets in clusters — and that always breaks the back of a batting team.”

West Indies started the tournament strongly, marching through the group stage undefeated before suffering the first blip in an eight-wicket loss to England in their opening Super Eight fixture in St Lucia.

Also sent in on that occasion, the West Indies batting unit once again stuttered with no batsman getting out of the 30s, resulting in a total of 180 which England easily overhauled.

Describing the defeat as a “wake-up call”, Powell said it had also proven to be the turning point of the Caribbean side’s campaign.

“I think the defeat against England was very disappointing for us as players but also it was a wake-up call,” the Jamaican said.

“It was a wake-up call because we were playing consistently good cricket so it showed us that, ‘Hey, in T20 cricket anything is possible.’

“But, looking back now in hindsight, we can say that two points against England was very, very important because we see how the group [has] come down.

“But, having said that, each and every game in the Super Eights, we know it was going to be tough. We know each and every game in the Super Eight was always important.”

SCOREBOARD

WEST INDIES

K Mayers c Stubbs b Shamsi 35

S Hope c Stubbs b Jansen 0

+N Pooran c Jansen b Markram 1

R Chase c Rabada b Shamsi 52

*R Powell st de Kock b Maharaj 1

S Rutherford c Markram b Shamsi 0

A Russell run out 15

A Hosein c & b Rabada 6

A Joseph not out 11

G Motie not out 4

Extras (b1, lb1, w8) 10

TOTAL (20 overs, 8 wkts) 135

Did not bat: O McCoy

Fall of wickets: 1-2 (Hope), 2-5 (Pooran), 3-86 (Mayers), 4-89 (Powell), 5-94 (Rutherford), 6-97 (Chase), 7-117 (Russell), 8-118 (Hosein)

Bowling: Jansen 2-0-17-1 (w4), Markram 4-0-28-1 (w2), Maharaj 4-0-24-1, Nortje 4-0-26-0 (w2), Shamsi 4-0-27-3, Rabada 2-0-11-1

SOUTH AFRICA (Target: 123 off 17 overs)

+Q de Kock c Rutherford b Russell 12

R Hendricks c wkp Pooran b Russell 0

*A Markram c Mayers b Joseph 18

T Stubbs c Mayers b Chase 29

H Klaasen c wkp Pooran b Joseph 22

D Miller b Chase 4

M Jansen not out 21

K Maharaj c Joseph b Chase 2

K Rabada not out 5

Extras (b2, w9) 11

TOTAL (7 wkts, 16.1 overs) 124

Did not bat: A Nortje, T Shamsi

Fall of wickets: 1-12 (Hendricks), 2-15 (de Kock), 3-42 (Markram), 4-77 (Klaasen), 5-93 (Miller), 6-100 (Stubbs), 7-110 (Maharaj)

Bowling: Hosein 3-0-31-0, Russell 4-0-19-2 (w1), Joseph 4-0-25-2 (w1), Motie 1-0-20-0, McCoy 1.1-0-15-0 (w3), Chase 3-0-12-3

Result: South African won by three wickets (DLS).

Position: South Africa advance to semi-finals.

Man of the Match: Tabraiz Shamsi

Toss: South Africa

Umpires: Alex Wharf, Rod Tucker; TV – Chris Brown