Tony Becca Contributing Editor
West Indies captain Shivnarine Chanderpaul (right) walks back to the pavillion after falling leg before wicket to Andre Nel for 31 on yesterday's fourth day of the third Digicel Test against South Africa. The South African cricketers celebrate in the background. - DELLMAR
BRIDGETOWN:
THE WEST Indies dream of winning the third Test, levelling the count at one-one and setting up a winner-take-all showdown in the fourth and final Test of the Digicel Series ended in a nightmare, in broad daylight, at Kensington Oval yesterday.
Trailing by 252 at the end of the first innings, the West Indies, the once mighty Windies, cornered by fast bowlers Makhaya Ntini and André Nel and shot down for an embarrassing 166, lost the match by an innings and 86 runs. The end came 50 minutes after tea with the afternoon's sun still shining on Kensington, with another 28.4 overs of the day's allotted overs to be bowled, and another day still to come.
In winning the match, South Africa, winners of the second Test by an emphatic eight wickets, not only grabbed a winning two-lead in the contest, but in doing so made it four straight series victories, two at home and two away, over the West Indies.
EMBARRASSING DEFEAT
In losing the match, the West Indies not only left themselves without a chance of even drawing the series, and after the draw at Kensington in 2001, they not only allowed South Africa to avenge the embarrassing defeat of 1992 when, on the final morning of their first Test in the Caribbean, with the champagne on ice and awaiting the celebration, they lost eight wickets for 25 runs and lost the one-off Test match by 58 runs.
After losing to New Zealand in 2002, to Australia in 2003, and to England in 2004, once by 10 wickets, once by nine wickets, and once by eight wickets, yesterday's loss also made it four straight for the West Indies at Kensington - at the place Barbadians refer to as the "Lion's Den" and where the West Indies were unbeaten for 59 years before losing to England in 1994.
Left with nothing to hope for but a draw after South Africa, resuming on 521 for eight replying to 296, had declared their first innings closed at 548 for nine after 30 minutes play and after Dwayne Bravo, running from second slip towards thirdman, had taken a fantastic catch to dismiss Ntini off fast bowler Daren Powell, the West Indies were in and out in just over four hours minutes and 54.2 overs. But for a little resistance from captain Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who lasted for 83 minutes and 62 deliveries, and Courtney Browne, who scored 68 while batting for 110 minutes and facing 75 deliveries, the innings would have been much shorter.
THE STATE OF THE PITCH
Rohan Kanhai, a former West Indies captain, the genius with the bat from Berbice, Guyana, once said, with a broad smile, that sometimes the state of the pitch depends on who are batting and who are bowling, and that was the situation at Kensington Oval.
Batting on the same pitch on which their bowlers were far from impressive, batting on the same pitch on which South Africa's batsmen looked so at home, the West Indies were destroyed by Nel - six for 32 off 16.2 overs, and Ntini - two for 40 off 11, who, unlike the West Indies bowlers, got the ball to kick and to move off the seam.
Unlike South Africa's batsmen, the West Indies batsmen, but for one or two, looked technically incapable. They offered as much resistance as sitting ducks, Ntini and Nel - 10 for 88 in the match, 39 wickets in seven matches against the West Indies, were too good for them. In a nervous start, Chris Gayle and Wavell Hinds played and missed, hooked and missed, and when, at 17 without loss, the two quickies rocked them with three wickets for no runs in four deliveries, they never recovered.
Standing tall and going neither back nor forward, Gayle edged a short lifting delivery from Ntini to captain Graeme Smith at first slip. Next ball, the last of the sixth over, Ramnaresh Sarwan, ducking to a short-pitched delivery that did not get up, was caught at third slip by Herschelle Gibbs as the ball lobbed off the shoulder of the bat. It was 17 for three when, Nel, bowling around the wicket, drew the left-hander forward, cut the ball away off the pitch, and Gibbs made no mistake at third slip. For the second time in the match, Chanderpaul joined Lara with the West Indies on the run, with the world record holder still to get off the mark, and for a while they appeared set to lead a fight back.
STARTED WITH CONFIDENCE
Just as they started to play confidently, however, a few minutes after Chanderpaul opened up with a cut off Ntini to the backward point boundary, shortly after Lara went forward and drove Nel to the long-off boundary and then went onto the back foot and smashed Ntini to the cover boundary, they were both gone.
Twenty-five minutes after lunch, Lara, jumping across his crease, was leg before wicket to Nel for 13 at 54 for four, 13 minutes later, Chanderpaul, coming forward, was leg before wicket to Nel for 31 at 63 for five, and that, but for Browne, was that.
With so much time left, with the match destined to end in South Africa's favour and no pressure on him, Browne, who joined the action at 71 for six in the 30th over, entertained his fans with some tremendous strokes including four that sailed over the boundary, two off left-arm spinner Nicky Boje and one each off pacers Ntini and Monde Zondeki.
West Indies 1st innings 296 South Africa 1st innings (overnight: 521-8)
N. Boje not out 20
M. Ntini c Bravo b Powell 16
A. Nel not out 4
Extras (b-1, lb-2, nb-13) 16
Total (for 9 wickets declared, 177.5 overs) 548
Fall of wickets: 1-191, 2-334, 3-392, 4-410, 5-450, 6-496, 7-502, 8-504, 9-542
Bowling: Edwards 32.5 - 3 - 112 - 0 (nb-5)
King 30 - 5 - 80 - 1 (nb-6), Powell 31 - 2 - 103 - 3 (nb-1), Bravo 29 - 3 - 73 - 0 (nb-1)
R. Hinds 18 - 1 - 67 - 0, Gayle 27 - 3 - 85 - 3, W. Hinds 9 - 2 - 18 - 1, Sarwan 1 - 0 - 7 - 0
West Indies 2nd innings
C. Gayle c Smith b Ntini 5
W. Hinds c Gibbs b Nel 11
R. Sarwan c Gibbs b Ntini 0
B. Lara lbw b Nel 13
S. Chanderpaul lbw b Nel 31
D. Bravo c Boucher b Kallis 6
R. Hinds c Kallis b Boje 15
C. Browne c Dippenaar b Nel 68
D. Powell lbw b Nel 5
F. Edwards c Ntini b Nel 2
R. King not out 3
Extras (b-1 lb-2 nb-4) 7
Total (all out, 54.2 overs) 166
Fall of wickets: 1-17, 2-17, 3-17, 4-54, 5-63, 6-71, 7-107, 8-130, 9-143, 10-166.
Bowling: Nel 16.2 - 3 - 32 - 6, Ntini 11 - 2 - 40 - 2 (nb-1), Zondeki 8 - 3 - 43 - 0 (nb-3), Boje 11 - 1 - 33 - 1, Kallis 6 - 3 - 7 - 1, Smith 2 - 0 - 8-0,
Result: South Africa won by an innings and 86 runs.
