Top 5 reasons why West Indies bowed out of the Champions Trophy

1. The fateful delivery

Chasing a curtailed total of 230 in 36 overs against the Proteas, the West Indies were on course by the end of 26 overs with 190 runs on the board. The sky was deceptively clear. A rash shot from Kieron Pollard saw him being caught at third man of the bowling of Ryan Mclaren and suddenly the rain came pouring down. The dismissal meant that West Indies who had lead on the D/L score before that single delivery were now tied on score with South Africa. The points were shared and by virtue of a superior run-rate South Africa made their way into the semi-finals. This was not a one-off incident in the history of the game. In fact, South Africa have been on the wrong side of it before. In the 1992 World Cup that employed a different method of resetting targets saw a similar disaster. When rain stopped play for 12 minutes with South Africa needing 22 runs from 13 balls chasing England’s 6/252 off 45 overs, and the revised target left South Africa needing 21 runs from one ball. South Africa lost that game but the victory against the West Indies was perhaps history’s compensation to the Proteas.