WI VS RSA - 1st T20I, South Africa tour of West Indies, 2021

That was one helluva statement from the World Champions who had the services of Gayle, Pollard, Russell and Bravo for the first time in over six years in the same West Indies XI. They were blanked in the Test series, but they are a formidable unit in this format. Bavuma and Co. had absolutely no clue against these intimidating WI batsmen. The Proteas have around 20 hours to recover from this thrashing. Don't forget to tune in for the second T20I. For now, it's goodbye and good night from Abhinand Raghavendran, Akshay Maanay, Pradeep Krishnamurthy and Mukesh.

Pollard | West Indies captain: We spoke about trying to hit the first punch. They (South Africa) got off to a pretty good start. Credit to the bowlers how they came back in the middle overs and in the back end using the variations and using the dimensions of the ground. 160, I think that's on par. The way we went out and chased it with that sort of attitude, guys playing to their strengths, it was well done. Talented cricketer, we'd love to see more from Evin on a consistent basis. We hope that the consistency can continue. For us, it's not about one individual but the entire team. Winning the game with overs to spare and wickets in hand is a start for us. We have a young team from a Test cricket point of view. These guys wouldn't have faced the likes of Rabada and Nortje. For us, we are a little bit familiar. We can't get too much ahead of ourselves. We'll try to get better.

Bavuma | South Africa captain: Obviously disappointed. That's not the way we wanted to start. As a team, we have a lot to speak about. We don't have a lot of time. We have to come with a better plan tomorrow. We thought it was a decent score, but below par. That's the effort we were able to manage with the bat. We were leaning quite heavily on our bowling attack. As I said, we got to have those conversations. We didn't capitalize in the second half of our batting. We knew they'd come out hard. Was trying to get as many dots as possible, get them to play those big shots, make the mistakes and obviously take them. They played well, Lewis and Fletcher got them off to a flier upfront and they never really gave us a chance after that. It's a mindset thing, you can't change your skills in a day or couple of hours. Mentally, our tactics have to be more sound. We'll have to come with a better attitude and make sure that we focus on our execution.

Evin Lewis | Player of the Match I was very confident, I knew I could back my game. Was an excellent pitch, once you were in, you could play your shots. I just tried to hit them when they bowled in my area. I thought they were around 30-40 runs short, it did cross my mind (about a possible century), but at the same time, if we win with me scoring 70-odd, it's very satisfying. It's important that we keep backing ourselves and go on to win the series.

17:39 Local Time, 21:39 GMT, 03:09 IST: West Indies make a mockery of South Africa's 160. 15 sixes, 9 fours and they've won this encounter with 30 balls to spare. Chasing 161, the hosts got off to a rollicking start 84 runs in 7 overs. Evin Lewis was the aggressor-in-chief and his opening partner Andre Fletcher also didn't shy away from playing his shots either. The partnership was eventually broken via a run-out. South Africa conceded just 9 runs in the next three overs but that was the calm before yet another storm. Universe Boss and Dre Russ swung at everything and finished the proceedings in a hurry. Earlier, South Africa scored 53 in the powerplay and that was the only phase during which they appeared to be ahead in the game. Pollard rotated his bowlers well on a slightly two-paced pitch and restricted their opponents to a score that was clearly inadequate. Presentations coming up..

Ngidi to Russell, SIX, game over! Fittingly, it ends with a maximum. In-angling length ball and Russell wallops it into the deep mid-wicket stands with a mighty heave. West Indies win by 8 wickets and go 1-0 up in the 5-match series

Ngidi to Russell, no run, swings his bat hard does Russell and connects with thin air. Quick off-cutter from a short of length, Russell shapes up to heave it into the leg-side and gets beaten on the inside edge

West Indies are one hit away from the win...

Ngidi to Gayle, 1 run, slow again, short again, Gayle reads it late and half-pulls it to square leg

Ngidi to Russell, 1 run, 117kph, slower ball bumper, pulled to deep mid-wicket

Ngidi to Russell, SIX, Russell won't spare you! Full toss and on the pads, easy pickings for Russell who flicks it aerially into the deep mid-wicket stands. A proper hit-me ball from Ngidi

Ngidi to Gayle, 1 run, 135kph, full toss on the pads, Gayle helps it on its way to long leg

Lungi Ngidi [2.0-0-31-0] is back into the attack

Just 15 runs needed. Should be over in an over or two...

Linde to Russell, FOUR, 84kph, in-angler, Russell uses the angle to flog it over mid-wicket for a one-bounce four. Found the gap between deep mid-wicket and deep square leg perfectly. 16 runs off the over

Linde to Russell, no run, 91kph, flat ball around off, punched straight to extra cover

Linde to Gayle, 1 run, short of length and Linde gets away with it as Gayle miscues the pull to deep mid-wicket

Linde to Gayle, no run, yorker length, jammed into the on-side

Linde to Gayle, FOUR, that was hammered! Linde misses the yorker by a fraction and that's enough for the big man. Shuffled a tad and thumps it over the bowler's head. Thankfully, the bowler didn't get his hands/fingertips to it

Linde to Gayle, wide, 96kph, darted wide outside off, too wide and Gayle shoulders arms