EAST LONDON - AS a final exam for candidates seeking entry into next Thursday's second Test eleven, the early returns from the West Indies' three-day match against Border were not flattering.

It was the bowlers' turn first and, even with a sympathetic evaluation, no one passed with flying colours.

Indeed, it would be hard-pressed to go beyond a C for any of the three vying for the one obviously open place. Harsher judgement might have gone for an even lower grading with a notation ``can do better'' which they must when Border bat a second time.

Border batted all but nine of the allocated 90 overs, declaring at 282 for nine, leaving time enough for Clayton Lambert and Philo Wallace to club six fours between them in replying with 38 without loss.

On a cloudless, cool, crystal clear day blown by a strong north-easterly wind, Franklyn Rose and Merv Dillon each had testing 10-over spells in the afternoon but failed to appreciate the nature of the pitch while Rawl Lewis' leg-spin, used by Brian Lara for 32 overs into the headwind, was disappointing in its lack of consistency.

Nixon McLean bowled nine overs in two separate goes before lunch but spent the remainder of the afternoon on Dennis Waight's treatment table in the dressing room, having a stiffening knee attended to. The word was it was nothing to be concerned about but the Test is only six days off.

Wind-assisted, all the fast bowlers worked up a head of steam but chose to blow it off by pounding the ball into a pitch of even, predictable bounce and, after the heavy rain of early in the week, little pace.

Rarely did the tactic discomfort Border's batsmen and only one of their nine wickets fell to the bouncer, the captain Morne Strydom hooking into long-leg's lap the over after tea for Rose's solitary wicket.

In contrast, the full length delivery around off-stump was always more likely to succeed. There were a couple of missed chances in the slips before one actually stuck and half-dozen fat edges that sneaked through to the unprotected third man boundary.

Darren Ganga put down the left-handed opener Brad Wright at three in Rose's second over at second slip and Shivnarine Chanderpaul dropped the No. 4 Wayne Wiblin when he was 4 off Dillon who repeated the dose three overs later, Ganga this time latching onto the offering.

The upshot was an opening partnership of 113 between Wright and the right-handed Craig Sugden that occupied the first two and a quarter hours and 31.2 overs. It was only separated by Floyd Reifer's fast pick-up on the run from mid-wicket and direct hit of the middle stump at the bowler's end as White scampered a suicidal single.

That prompted the best shift of the day from Dillon, 10 overs in which he collected three wickets for 30, most of the runs from cuts and pulls off the short stuff.

Mark Boucher, the Test wicket-keeper, went to a questionable lbw decision, not the only doubt created by umpire Wilf Diederick for the day. Wiblin fell to Ganga's neat atonement for his earlier miss and Sugden's three and a quarter hours ended when he slapped a wide long-hop high to point where Reifer latched on to a sharp two-handed catch to his left.

The 24-year-old Sugden has moved over to Border this season from neighbouring Natal where he wasn't assured of a place. With 12 fours in all directions, he was assured and well organised.

Border were 207 for four at tea but once Strydom's hook sailed into the grasp of sub Ridley Jacobs, they had little else to offer.

Lewis collected his first wicket in his 28th over to a catch on the midwicket boundary and his second four balls later to Rose's tumbling effort at mid-wicket off Piet Botha's fierce pull. Alternating over and round the wicket to constantly changing fields, he often seemed frustrated by the lack of bite in the surface and his own waywardness.

He rarely beat the bat and his most serious threat was to the redundant cluster of close fielders of whom Clayton Lambert took three sharp body blows.

Chanderpaul had a late wicket and Dillon was recalled to finish the innings.

Day 2: Batting Hopefuls Spurn Chance

BUFFALO PARK, East London - The opportunity for the unestablished batsmen was clear-cut, but none stepped forward to seize it on the second day of the West Indies' match against Border.

One place in the middle order for this week's second Test remained unsettled at the start. So it stayed at the end.

Jimmy Adams' enforced absence has left a gap at No. 6 that was unconvincingly filled in the first Test by Stuart Williams, a converted opener.

The other alternatives are Daren Ganga, a 19-year-old on his first tour without a Test to his name, and Floyd Reifer, Adams' left-handed replacement, also on his first full tour and with only two more Tests than Ganga.

Ganga, at No. 3, batted steadily and sensibly for an hour-and-a-quarter before he was one of flighty off-spinner Peter Emslie's four wickets to a short-leg catch off his glove as he stretched long forward.

Reifer, at No. 5, followed his 93 in the one-day match on Wednesday with an untroubled 36.

He then seemed to regard an hour and 35 minutes in the middle as sufficient and needlessly hoisted left-arm spinner Piet Strydom into the gale-like crosswind that gave wide long-on time to run around for the catch.

Williams lasted eight balls at No. 5. Then, with no perceptible movement of his feet, he edged into second slip's lap in the first over of a second spell from the pacy and aggressive Makhaya Ntini.

It was left to Shivnarine Chanderpaul to help himself to the only worthwhile score of the day, but only after an early chance.

There are two sides to Chanderpaul and this was the more relaxed and flamboyant. He made 92 off 129 balls with 15 fours, as usual, most in an arc behind extra-cover and mid-wicket.

Brian Lara, who might have been caught behind at seven, spent a merry hour over 40 from 38 balls and was then foxed by Emslie, whom he had just hoisted for sixes straight and over long-on.

All of this followed the best opening partnership of the tour, 106, between Clayton Lambert, who made 33, and Philo Wallace, 68 with several typically explosive strokes.

Resuming with 38 already to their credit, they batted through the first hour and 35 minutes but they were both undone by Emslie and their own susceptibility to spin.

Lambert was out to an off-spinner for the third time on tour, this time topedging his sweep to short fine-leg where Brad White tumbled forward to complete an excellent catch.

Before Wallace misjudged the strength of the wind to be bowled round his legs sweeping, he and Nitini had enlivened the morning with a stirring contest.

The faster the young tearaway charged in, with the breeze at his back, the harder Wallace tried to hit him.

A flick off his legs and an on-drive hustled to the boundary in the blinking of the eye, and a free-swinging straight hit landed a few seats back in the seats.

Each time, Ntini retaliated with serious bouncers. The first was payback for the six the previous ball and whistled past Wallace's hook to brush the top of his helmet. The second followed one of the leg-side fours and went past Wallace's throat.

Emslie intervened to spoil the fun and it was not until Ntini came back and Chanderpaul and Lara got together on Williams' dismissal that the tempo picked up again.

Ntini made his first ball leap into Lara's shoulder and, at the opposite end, Emslie should have had the West Indies captain caught by wicket-keeper Mark Boucher, cutting, when seven.

Chanderpaul also survived an early chance off a fierce pull to midwicket off Strydom but neither changed his aggressive approach.

Lara joined battle with Emslie but the off-spinner had the final say when he sneaked one under the captain's bat as he moved down to drive and bowled him.

The partnership posted 89 in an hour.

Chanderpaul was then 77 and became more careful with his first hundred of the tour beckoning.

He never made it. He flat-batted an ordinary delivery from Piet Botha with the second new ball and was acrobatically caught by Ntini at mid-on, seven short.

Botha and Ntini proceeded to wrap up the innings.

Mysteriously, Franklyn Rose appeared at No.11 with Stuart Williams as his runner, a thoroughly unnecessary exercise, whatever Rose's ailment.

As it was, he received only two balls.

There was also some puzzle when the West Indies fielded for the final six overs as Junior Murray, fit again after his food-poisoning episode last weekend, took his place to keep wicket for the first time on tour.

It was understandable that the West Indies should have requested the adjustment and sporting of Border to accede - except that Law 2.2 now specifically states that ``no substitute shall act as wicket-keeper'', full stop.

The law, again, was made to look like an ass.

Day 3: West Indies driven to and fro

by Tony Cozier

BUFFALO PARK, East London - There have been any number of days of West Indies cricket in recent times that have made painful watching.

The last of their match against Border here yesterday was the latest.

With the indifference to which they are so prone these days, the West Indies typified the cliche ``going through the motions''.

In this case, the motions involved mainly leather hunting, ball softening and long-distance retrieving.

The absence of Franklyn Rose with a sore heel, yet another of the burgeoning list of injuries, limited Brian Lara's options and seemingly influenced the general laidback mood.

In such a relaxed atmosphere on a lazy, hazy Sunday afternoon, Border's batsmen helped themselves to an inviting buffet of cheap runs.

Against a mottley assortment of bowling, including 14 overs of gentle, if accurate, medium-pace doddlers from Clayton Lambert, 11 of leg-spin from Shivnarine Chanderpaul and a couple of anonymous slow stuff from Floyd Reifer, they thumped five sixes and 41 fours off the day's 78.2 overs.

Border saw no reason to open the match with a declaration and only agreed to call things off when Wayne Wiblin, a heavy-set, 29-year-old right-hander, reached his fourth first-class hundred.

He brought up the landmark with boundaries off successive balls, his 102nd and 103rd, when Merv Dillon was brought back with the second new ball. Border were then 340 for eight.

The West Indies left the field seemingly unconcerned but they have only three days to Thursday's second Test to snap themselves out of their mental lethargy.

Wiblin's unbeaten 101 was set up by a second-wicket partnership of 163 at a run-a-minute lick between the opener Craig Sugden, whose impressive 84 was his second half-century of the match, and wicket-keeper Mark Boucher, tuning up for the Test with his favoured flat-bat shots, also with 84.

Nixon McLean took a wicket with the fifth ball of the day - the left-hander Brad White caught behind off an uncertain outside edge - but was entrusted with only 11 overs, nine before lunch, two with the second new ball at the end.

Whether this was because he was still favouring a right knee that was swollen after the first day or because he continued to pound the ball into the pitch to be cut, pulled and hooked was unclear, but he spent most of his time at various positions in the outfield.

He gave way to Rawl Lewis who, once more, had a long and expensive spell. His 26 overs brought his aggregate since his hurried flight for the ``A'' tour in India 11 days earlier to 106. For the second time in the match, he went for over 100.

The expense was again deceptive. While his control was lacking, he had to contend with a field-setting for much of the time that would have flattered Shane Warne.

A slip, gully, short-leg and silly mid-off were hardly appropriate for short leg-breaks on a slow pitch that were repeatedly cut to the unprotected boundary rope. But no fielder could be properly positioned for the full toss, long-hop and half-volley that were lifted for three of the sixes.

Even so, Lewis did spin the ball and might have had more than his three wickets with a little luck.

Twice, Sudgen edged him just short of and past slip, while wicket-keeper Junior Murray dropped Wiblin's straightforward defensive snick when he was 32.

It was not a good day for Murray, given the chance for his first stint of the tour as substitute. He also missed a stumping off Chanderpaul when Wiblin was 85 and nervously approaching three figures.

At 75, Wiblin hit Chanderpaul's full toss into, and out of, Floyd Reifer's lap on the mid-wicket boundary.

Lewis' best ball was the googly that foxed Boucher and had him lbw on the backfoot.

The previous over, Sugden had fallen to a top-edged hook in the first over of a second spell from Dillon, who was again the best of the bowlers.

His length and line were generally good but he paid the price whenever he dropped short. He certainly looked ready to play a part in the second Test.

There were a few hundred spectators spread around the inviting grass embankments of Buffalo Park but the most enthusiastic cricket was played, all day, beyond the boundary, by dozens of boys, black and white and of varying ages, in several impromptu softball games.

At least they were enjoying themselves.