DUR­BAN–West In­dies failed in their bid for a clean sweep, con­jur­ing up a fa­mil­iar ragged all-round per­for­mance to slump to a 69-run de­feat to South Africa in the third and fi­nal Twen­ty20 In­ter­na­tion­al in South Africa, yes­ter­day.

Lack­ing the sharp­ness ex­hib­it­ed in the two pre­vi­ous games and opt­ing to rest sev­er­al front­line play­ers in­clud­ing Chris Gayle, the Caribbean side found the tar­get of 196 a bur­den too heavy to car­ry and slumped to 126 all out off 19 overs at Kingsmead.

Open­er Lendl Sim­mons gave them a light­ning start with 49 off 31 balls, in a 48-run first wick­et stand with the out-of-sorts Dwayne Smith (5), which lift­ed hopes of a suc­cess­ful run chase.

How­ev­er, once Smith missed a heave at a straight one from left-arm spin­ner Aaron Phangiso and was bowled in the sixth over, the in­nings im­plod­ed and the last nine wick­ets tum­bled for 78 runs.

Kieron Pol­lard was the on­ly oth­er bats­man to reach the 20s but even then, he need­ed 23 balls for his un­beat­en 20 and failed to find the bound­ary once.

Medi­um pac­er David Wiese ran through the Windies in­nings to fin­ish with five for 23 while pac­ers Marchant de Lange (2-26) and Wayne Par­nell (2-33) sup­port­ed with two wick­ets apiece.

How­ev­er, it was open­er Morne van Wyk's maid­en T20 In­ter­na­tion­al hun­dred that put South Africa on their way to a daunt­ing 195 for three from their 20 overs.

The 35-year-old right-han­der pum­meled an un­beat­en 114 off 70 balls as South Africa, sent in, cap­i­tal­ized on way­ward bowl­ing and loose field­ing to take com­mand of the con­test.

Van Wyk, who count­ed nine fours and sev­en six­es, put on 111 for the first wick­et with Reeze Hen­dricks who struck 42 from 32 balls, and added then a fur­ther 47 with Wiese who stroked 21 off 16 de­liv­er­ies, af­ter be­ing pushed up the or­der.

Sur­viv­ing a chance to Smith at point off seam­er Car­los Brath­waite when he had made just one in the sec­ond over, van Wyk dom­i­nat­ed the Windies bowl­ing, reach­ing his half-cen­tu­ry off 35 balls off the fi­nal de­liv­ery of the tenth over.

South Africa were then 96 with­out loss and look­ing at a tar­get well be­yond 200 but the Windies bowlers man­aged to pull things back, as they hosts man­aged just 99 from the next ten.

Van Wyk marched to three fig­ures in cav­a­lier fash­ion, swing­ing left-armer Shel­don Cot­trell straight for four and then de­posit­ing him over the ropes at square leg next ball in the penul­ti­mate over of the in­nings, to storm in­to the 90s.

He reached his hun­dred off the sec­ond ball of the fi­nal over, with a leg side sin­gle off medi­um pac­er Dwayne Bra­vo.

Sim­mons pro­pelled West In­dies in the ear­ly overs, crack­ing five fours and two six­es as Smith scratched around. He sin­gle-hand­ed­ly de­stroyed Par­nell in the bowler's sec­ond over � the fourth of the in­nings which cost 23 � smash­ing four fours and a six as West In­dies mo­tored to 45 with­out loss af­ter four overs.

How­ev­er Smith de­part­ed af­ter labour­ing ten balls and nev­er find­ing the bound­ary and Mar­lon Samuels steered Wiese to cap­tain Justin On­tong at point in the sev­enth over to fall for six with the score on 60 for two.

With a half-cen­tu­ry beck­on­ing Sim­mons holed out in the deep off Wiese in the ninth over and West In­dies were slump­ing at 71 for four in the tenth when An­dre Fletch­er was tak­en at third man for two by Kyle Ab­bott off Par­nell.

All-rounders Dwayne Bra­vo and Pol­lard, at the cen­tre of at­ten­tion fol­low­ing their ax­ing from the World Cup squad, then came to­geth­er but could do lit­tle to stop the rot.

Bra­vo had faced 13 balls for his 12 when he tried to go over the leg side but suc­ceed­ed on­ly in top-edg­ing a catch off Wiese to the wick­et­keep­er run­ning around to square leg, in the 13th over at 84 for five.

An­dre Rus­sell flat­tered to de­ceive with a six and four in 12 off sev­en balls and cap­tain Dar­ren Sam­my (8) and Car­los Brath­waite (1) both per­ished in the 17th over at the hands of Wiese, as the in­nings went awry. (CMC)

scores

SOUTH AFRICA 195 for three off 20 overs (Morne van Wyk 114 not out, Reeza Hen­dricks 42, David Wiese 21; Kieron Pol­lard 1-13) vs WEST IN­DIES 126 all out off 19 overs (Lendl Sim­mons 49; Kieron Pol­lard 20 not out; David Wiese 5-23, Marchant de Lange 2-26, Wayne Par­nell 2-33).?