Rain thwarts Proteas' victory hopes as first Test against West Indies ends in draw

The South Africans ultimately ended up five wickets short of victory on the conclusion of the fifth day's play in Trinidad.

Rain disrupted play on all five days of the Port of Spain Test, with a total of 142 overs lost.

The match ended in a draw under fading light at Queen's Park Oval on Sunday. The West Indies were 97 runs short of an unlikely win, while South Africa was unable to take the final five wickets that would have secured them 12 World Test Championship points.

This draw was the first in men's Test cricket in over a year.

South Africa made a strong effort to secure a win by declaring at 173/3 before lunch on the final day. However, another rain delay and an impressive rearguard innings of 92 from Alick Athanaze dashed their hopes of victory.

"We tried our best to get a result in our favour. But the wicket didn't break up as much as we expected. In the end, it was a good, competitive game of cricket," Proteas captain Temba Bavuma said.

"We went in with an extra batter as a cushion. As batters, we will like to be a bit more ruthless and convert those fifties into hundreds.

"We lost time because of the weather. With the bowling resources we had, we tried our best. Keshav and Kagiso (Rabada) supported by others, a little more time and things could have been different."

West Indies captain Kraigg Brathwaite was happy with the way his batters performed in the Test, which saw them successfully hold off the Proteas bowling attack on the final day.

"I am happy with our batting group. The guys are quite positive, I am proud of the batting unit," Brathwaite said.

"We believed we could get those runs. It wasn't going to be easy, We need to keep going from strength to strength. The pitches are a bit slower in the Caribbean. For me, it's about adjusting when to go slow and when to accelerate.

"It's all about belief and planning and bat as per the plan. Alick showed us that today. Hodge was good in England. His plan was the sweep and he struck to it, even though he got out to a sweep."

The second and final Test starts in Guyana on Thursday.

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