BENONI, South Africa – A gal­lant un­beat­en half-cen­tu­ry from Kevin Sin­clair stunned South Africa-A and pro­pelled West In­dies-A to a come-from-be­hind one-wick­et vic­to­ry, in a thrilling fin­ish to the open­ing four-day “Test” yes­ter­day.

In pur­suit of 224 af­ter re­sum­ing the fi­nal morn­ing at Wil­low­moore Park on eight with­out loss, West In­dies-A crashed to 119 for sev­en just be­fore tea, to look in dan­ger of los­ing the con­test and falling be­hind in the se­ries.

The 24-year-old Sin­clair en­tered at num­ber sev­en to trans­form the run chase, how­ev­er, carv­ing out a su­perb un­beat­en 80 to put the vis­i­tors over the line.

Dis­play­ing ex­cel­lent tem­pera­ment, he calm­ly put on 29 for the eighth wick­et with Jay­den Seales (12), and 23 for the ninth with Sher­mon Lewis (2) be­fore in­spir­ing a nerve-wrack­ing 53-run, un­bro­ken last wick­et stand with Jair McAl­lis­ter who spent 34 balls over a cru­cial sev­en not out.

Sin­clair, a com­pact right-han­der with a first-class av­er­age of 32, faced 150 de­liv­er­ies in just over three hours at the crease and lashed eight fours and three six­es.

An ill-ad­vised leg bye off the third de­liv­ery of the first over with the sec­ond new ball from pac­er Tshe­po More­ki (3-56) added to the dra­ma, as it left McAl­lis­ter with three balls to face at 222 for nine.

How­ev­er, the 27-year-old sliced the next de­liv­ery to cov­er and sprint­ed a cou­ple, to spark cel­e­bra­to­ry scenes in the West In­dies-A camp.

Ear­li­er, West In­dies-A lost Zachary Mc­Cask­ie in the morn­ing’s sec­ond over af­ter he had added just one to his overnight five, caught at the wick­et off seam­er Mih­lali Mpong­wana (3-25) with nine runs on the board.

His dis­missal brought to­geth­er Test rook­ie left-han­ders Kirk McKen­zie (36) and Tage­nar­ine Chan­der­paul (35), the pair post­ing 66 for the sec­ond wick­et.

McKen­zie faced 70 balls and struck half-dozen fours while Chan­der­paul count­ed an­oth­er half-dozen fours in his 99-ball knock.

McKen­zie top-edged a slog-sweep at off-spin­ner Dane Piedt (2-58) and was tak­en at short fine leg and Chan­der­paul per­ished lbw to Mpong­wana af­ter adding a fur­ther 22 for the third wick­et with Kavem Hodge (12), lead­ing to a col­lapse which saw five wick­ets go down for 22 runs in quick time.

Tot­ter­ing on 119 for sev­en when Akeem Jor­dan sparred at a wide de­liv­ery from More­ki and was tak­en be­hind, West In­dies-A was then res­cued by Sin­clair’s hero­ics.

The sec­ond “Test” bowls off on Tues­day at Buf­fa­lo Park in East Lon­don.

Brief Scores

SOUTH AFRICA A 287 for nine de­cl. (Kee­gan Pe­tersen 59, Toni de Zorzi 55, Clyde For­tu­in 53, David Be­d­ing­ham 47, Mogam­mad Hamza 30; Jay­den Seales 3-23, Akeem Jor­dan 3-61, Kevin Sin­clair 2-64) and 250 (Neil Brand 104, Zubayr Hamza 30, David Be­d­ing­ham 23, Clyde For­tu­in 20; Akeem Jor­dan 3-58, Sher­mon Lewis 2-37, Kevin Sin­clair 2-39, Jay­den Seales 2-48).

WEST IN­DIES A 314 for nine de­cl. (Tage­nar­ine Chan­der­paul 78, Kavem Hodge 73, Akeem Jor­dan 40, Kevin Sin­clair 39, Zachary Mc­Cask­ie 31, Joshua Da Sil­va 20; Tshe­po More­ki 3-56, Dane Piedt 2-56, Hardus Viljoen 2-92) and 224 for nine (Kevin Sin­clair 80 not out, Kirk McKen­zie 36, Tage­nar­ine Chan­der­paul 35; Mih­lali Mpong­wana 3-25, Hardus Viljoen 2-43, Dane Piedt 2-58)