International Cricket: West Indies vs. South Africa 5th T20 Cricket Prediction

South Africa’s tour of the West Indies concludes with their fifth and final T20 match being played at St. George’s in Grenada. The match will start on Saturday July 3rd, 2021 at 2:00pm EST.

The series is tied at 2-2 after West Indies took the win by 20 runs, losing the toss this time around and being sent in by South Africa. An evenly poised series but who will hold their nerve to win it all?

West Indies for the first time in this series batted first, a change that many have been asking for and was granted to them through their loss of the toss. The West Indies changed their team yet again, replacing Jason Holder with Chris Gayle and Kevin Sinclair with Fidel Edwards. Lendl Simmons was very destructive at the top of the order with 47 while losing 3 of his partners before he himself was dismissed with the score on 70. All seemed lost for the West Indies but in came captain Keiron Pollard who turned their fortunes around with a truly sensational 51 not out off 25 balls with 2 fours and 5 sixes, taking the score 167 in their allotted 20 overs. Dwayne ‘The Champion’ Bravo produced his best international bowling performance taking 4 for 19 in his 4 overs along with valuable contributions from Pollard, Andre Russell, Obed McCoy and Chris Gayle to help seal win series tying victory.

What can you say about the ever-reliant Quinton de Kock? Unequivocally South Africa’s greatest asset from a batting standpoint, scoring 60 runs and taking South Africa’s chances of winning the fourth match deep until he lost his wicket with 41 runs still required for victory. The South African batsmen need to stop putting all of the pressure on Quinton and apply themselves accordingly if they are to win this series later today, especially David Miller who seems to have lost the plot in how to score runs. Tabraiz Shamsi was impressive yet again with the ball, taking 2 wickets for 13 runs from his 4 overs while George Linde also did a great job taking 2 for 16 from his 4 but no other bowler caused much of a threat to the West Indian batsmen.

This series has given you everything you could possibly ask for with thrills, spills, close finishes and lots of twists. It all comes down to this match, who will hold their nerve well enough to get over the hurdle to the finish line? Who will still be standing at the end of it all? I believe West Indies will win the game with the momentum slightly in their favor, South Africa have shown they can be very competitive and you can expect a fight to the end but West Indies will take the series win in today’s last match thriller.