Tony BeccaTHE second match of the Cable & Wireless One-Day series between the West Indies and South Africa takes place at the Antigua Recreation Ground tomorrow and cricket fans must be hoping that it will be a repeat of the first one at Sabina Park.
Saturday's match was memorable for many reasons.
With the fans lining up from 6 a.m., there was a full house on hand to witness the contest. The behaviour was exemplary, the atmosphere was fantastic, the players, on both sides, were brilliant. With the fortunes swaying from side to side, it was exciting right up to the final delivery when, with three runs to win, Ridley Jacobs cut Allan Donald for four.
It was a match that neither side deserved to have lost, a contest after which both sides deserved a ringing round of applause, and one that left members of the fraternity proudly uttering that when all is said and done, when it comes to excitement, drama, and the unexpected, there is no game like cricket.
Right or wrong, Saturday's match left the fans thrilled to their heart's content - not only because the West Indies won, not only because the underdogs triumphed, but also because of the glorious strokeplay, the wonderful bowling, the brilliant fielding, the tension and drama at the end of it all.
Starting with Herschelle Gibbs, who set the tempo when he opened the proceedings with two boundaries from two lovely drives in the first over, and Brian Lara, who hit the stumps from in the covers to run him out, it was cricket lovely cricket starring batsmen Gary Kirsten and Jacques Kallis, fielders Cameron Cuffy and Marlon Samuels, bowlers Cuffy and Neil McGarrell, batsmen Christopher Gayle, Samuels, Lara and Carl Hooper, bowlers Shaun Pollock, Kallis and Donald, and fielder extraordinaire, Jonty Rhodes.
Two hundred runs in a one-day contest is nothing to write home about, not one of the batsmen scored a century or got anywhere near to doing so, and none of the bowlers took five wickets.
The strokeplay, however, was dazzling, the bowling was generally challenging, the fielding, led by the incomparable Rhodes whose brilliance included two super catches, was outstanding, the catch by Cuffy running to his right at long-off to cut down Kallis and the one by Sammuels to remove Roger Telemachus off his own bowling were wonderful, and the return catch by pacer Kallis to get rid of McGarrell was simply unbelievable.
Flying off the leading edge of McGarrell's bat, lobbing over the bowler's head in his follow through, and with mid-off and mid-on giving up after going for it, the ball seemed to be landing safely when Kallis turned, went for it, and although the stumps were in his way, came up with the catch of a life time.
In a match of so many stars, there were, however, two who made the difference - the two who, with one shot each, turned a lovely day into an unforgettable one for the spectators.
One, obviously, was Jacobs. The other was McGarrell, who, with 16 runs needed in less than two overs and the odds on South Africa, chipped to pacer Kallis and drove straight into the Headley Stand to give the Windies a chance.
