West Indies captain Kieron Pollard blamed his team’s penchant for repeating its mistakes for its 3-2 series loss to South Africa following Saturday’s 25-run defeat in Grenada.

Quinton de Kock and Aiden Markram each scored half-centuries to pave the way for South Africa to clinch hard-fought series.

Batting first, South Africa scored 168-4, the highest score by either team in the five-match CG Insurance T20 series. De Kock scored 60 while Markham top-scored with 70 but, like the other four games before, the West Indies managed to restrict them to under 170.

However, it proved to be enough as South Africa reduced the West Indies to 143-9 as Evin Lewis’ 52 was not to be enough to get the home side over the line.

Lewis went on the attack to get Windies off to a strong start, but by the time he was caught by Markram, the hosts were 75-3, having lost Lendl Simmons and Chris Gayle.

Shimron Hetmyer’s 33 included two sixes, but the loss of Kieron Pollard and Andre Russell in swift succession ultimately left the Windies with too much to do, with Nicholas Pooran’s dismissal the final blow to their hopes.

“160-odd seems like a winning total, but we couldn’t get over the line,” said an obviously dismayed Pollard afterwards. “We made the same mistakes over and over again. We had set up the game well with guys in the shed, and so it’s disappointing.”

He gave credit to his bowlers for once again keeping South Africa’s batsmen in check throughout the series.

“One of the positives for us is the young bowlers – McCoy, Sinclair. Hopefully, we can regroup as in five or six days we have the Australians in the Caribbean.”

However, it was veteran Fidel Edwards, who was the best of the West Indies bowlers on Saturday, taking 2-19. He removed Captain Temba Bavuma with the third ball of the match and then returned to dismiss do Kock for his fourth half-century of the series.

Obed McCoy finished with figures of 1-31 while Dwayne Bravo took 1-28.

Lungi Ngidi was the pick of the South African bowlers with 3-31, while there were two wickets each for Kagiso Rabada and Wiann Mulder, who dismissed Pollard and Andre Russell in consecutive deliveries.

Bavuma said winning the series was a big step forward for his side that were winning their first series since March 2019.

“Very delighted, it’s been an incredible effort from the boys,” he said.

“Winning the series can only boost our confidence. Looking at the World Cup gives us belief. Things are gelling, we were put under pressure from a skill point of view. Big stride forward for us.”

Tabraiz Shamzi, who was voted Man-of-the-Series, who was miserly through the series was reluctant to take all the credit for his team’s success.

“Full credit goes to the entire bowling unit, which is why we won the series,” said Shamzi, who spilled a couple of chances during the West Indies chase. “There is a running joke in the team that the safest place to hit the ball is to hit it to me! People never gave us a chance. The teams played really well. To win 3-2 at their home ground shows something about the team.”

Meanwhile, Markham, who was Man of the Match, praised de Kock for helping him achieve his match-winning score.

“Lot of credit has to go to Quinny. He’s played a lot of T20 cricket. He was guiding me, as he’s spent a lot of time on this pitch. He’s a special player,” he said.