West Indies v South Africa, 2014-15

At Cape Town, January 2-6, 2015. South Africa won by eight wickets. Toss: West Indies. Test debut: S. R. Harmer.
For a change, West Indies decided to bat first. For another change, they made a fist of things. For yet another, they limited South Africa to a lead under 100. But the Windies of change blew themselves out: South Africa won shortly before lunch on the fifth day. Half-centuries by Johnson, Blackwood and Ramdin had steadied the tourists on the first day, but none reached 60. Still, taking South Africa's bowlers into the second represented progress. One of those bowlers had, not long before the match, been trundling around a supermarket when his mobile phone went off. Simon Harmer had lost out to Dane Piedt in a battle for the off-spinner's spot in the Test against Zimbabwe at Harare in August. And, with Imran Tahir having been brought back for the previous Test, Harmer had not expected to hear from selection convenor Andrew Hudson any time soon. He was mistaken. "I couldn't quite contain myself," he said. "But I found a quiet corner to do my thing."

Next thing he knew, Harmer was in the starting XI. "If someone had told me ten days ago that I'd be here, I probably would have slapped them," he said after the close of a day which began when he received his Test cap from Michael Holding. Incongruous? No. "Everyone laughed when I told him that I started as an off-spinner," said Holding. Harmer took three of the six wickets South Africa captured on the first day. The jewel in his crown was Chanderpaul, the teetering victim of a leg-side stumping.

Steyn and Morkel dismissed West Indies on the second morning. By stumps, du Plessis had been ousted for a half-century, Amla had another, and de Villiers was ominously poised. He finished with a disciplined 148, the major reason South Africa earned a lead of 92 - though 30 extras helped. West Indies had a chance to wrest back the advantage, but they needed their senior men to play responsibly. For two hours on a fourth day that started at 3pm because of rain, Samuels and Chanderpaul did just that. Then Samuels, who had survived a fearsome battle with Steyn, lost his head, playing the stroke of a juvenile delinquent to Harmer, and holing out for 74 to Elgar, running round behind the bowler from long-on. "We were building nicely," said West Indies' assistant coach Stuart Williams. "It was just an awful shot."

Samuels's words after his century in Port Elizabeth came back to haunt him: "I don't think any spinner should bowl to me and dictate terms." The last five batsmen contributed just four runs and, when Chanderpaul was finally run out for 50, West Indies had lost seven for 33. Steyn and Harmer finished with identical match figures of seven for 153, and South Africa were left a modest target of 124. Some of the sweetness of victory was dulled when Alviro Petersen announced his international retirement. He had scored five centuries in 36 Tests, including one on his debut, although he had not reached three figures for two years, and - at 34 - felt it was time to go.
Man of the Match: A. B. de Villiers.