Left-arm spin­ner Ke­shav Ma­haraj de­railed West In­dies’ ef­forts and put South Africa on the front foot at the end of day three of the open­ing Test here at the Queen’s Park Oval in Port-of-Spain on Fri­day.

Ma­haraj grabbed three wick­ets af­ter send­ing down 28 straight overs to trig­ger a mid­dle or­der col­lapse that saw West In­dies lose three wick­ets for just 10 runs, to leave the home side stut­ter­ing on 145-4, still 212 runs be­hind South Africa’s first in­nings to­tal of 357.

On an­oth­er rain-af­fect­ed day which saw over 90 min­utes be­ing lost, the West In­dies made a promis­ing start in their run chase.

Cap­tain Kraigg Brath­waite and Mikyle Louis frus­trat­ed the vis­i­tors in an open­ing stand of 53 on a slow, dry pitch.

Louis looked com­fort­able and dom­i­nat­ed the part­ner­ship with his much more ex­pe­ri­enced cap­tain.

But fac­ing the last ball be­fore lunch, the right han­der was un­done by an arm ball from Ma­haraj and bowled through the gate for 35.

Debu­tant Kea­cy Car­ty joined Brath­waite at the crease af­ter the break and even though the run rate me­an­dered un­der three runs an over, they kept South Africa’s bowlers at bay dur­ing a 61-run stand.

How­ev­er, sim­i­lar­ly to Louis, Brath­waite lost his wick­et to the fi­nal de­liv­ery be­fore tea to set­back West In­dies.

Af­ter fac­ing 131 balls for his 35, he drove a no-ball from pac­er Lun­gi Ngi­di to the right of Wiaan Mul­der sta­tioned at mid-on and took off for a sin­gle, on­ly for the field­er to hit the stumps with a di­rect throw with a re­view show­ing Brath­waite’s bat on the line.

His dis­missal brought some show­ers, and a de­ci­sion was made by the um­pires to take tea with the West In­dies 114-2.

When play fi­nal­ly re­sumed, Ma­haraj struck twice in the space of five runs to turn the match in South Africa’s favour.

Car­ty, who went to tea on 38, added just four more runs be­fore he was un­done by a de­liv­ery from Ma­haraj bowl­ing from around the wick­et and was trapped plumb in front to leave the home side 119-3.

Al­ick Athanaze en­dured a tor­rid time at the wick­et, with Ma­haraj bam­boo­zling the left-hand bats­man on sev­er­al oc­ca­sions.

It there­fore came as no sur­prise when Athanaze prod­ded for­ward un­cer­tain­ly at a de­liv­ery from the spin­ner, which found the out­side edge and gave Aiden Markram an easy catch at slip to be out for just 3, as West In­dies slipped to 124-4.

Kavem Hodge, who fin­ished the day on 11 not out and Ja­son Hold­er (13 not out), nav­i­gat­ed a tricky fi­nal pe­ri­od for the West In­dies to en­sure there were no fur­ther hic­cups.

Ma­haraj was the pick of the Pro­teas’ bowlers with 3-45.

Ear­li­er, South Africa added just 13 runs to their overnight to­tal of 344-8, to be dis­missed for 357.

West In­dies’ left-arm spin­ner Jomel War­ri­can and pac­er Jay­den Seales picked up the fi­nal two wick­ets in­side the first hour of play to quick­ly wrap up the tail.

War­ri­can fin­ished with 4-69 and Seales snagged 3-67, while fast bowler Ke­mar Roach end­ed with 2-53.

Sum­merise Scores

SOUTH AFRICA 344-8 (Tem­ba Bavu­ma 86, Tony de Zorzi 78, Wiann Mul­der 41 not out, Kyle Ver­reynne 39, David Be­d­ing­ham 29, Kag­iso Raba­da 21, Tris­tan Stubbs 20, Ryan Rick­le­ton 19; Jomel War­ri­can 4-69, Jay­den Seales 3-67, Ke­mar Roach 2-53) vs WEST IN­DIES 145-4 (Kea­cy Car­ty 42, Mikyle Louis 35, Kraigg Brath­waite 35, Ja­son Hold­er 13 not out, Kavem Hodge 11 not out; K Ma­haraj 3-45).

Po­si­tion: West In­dies trail South Africa by 212 runs.

Toss: South Africa.

Um­pires: Ah­san Raza, Richard Illing­worth.

TV um­pire: Shar­fud­doula.

Match ref­er­ee: Andy Py­croft.

Re­serve um­pire: Gre­go­ry Brath­waite.