The stated objective was, in the words of Brian Lara, to give those already earmarked for next week's first Test ``another run''.
The captain won the toss so it was the batsmen's turn first and, while he himself and Philo Wallace hardly got out of the starting blocks, Clayton Lambert, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Carl Hooper all spent valuable time in the middle before the rain arrived on schedule just before three o'clock, as it had done on the previous two afternoons, to end the first day of the West Indies' four-day match against Orange Free State after 57.5 overs.
In that time, the West Indies overcame the loss of Wallace and Lara within the first 40 minutes, both in ways that are all too familiar, to reach 193 for four.
The innings was put back on the rails by successive partnerships of 91 between the left-handers Lambert and Chanderpaul and 51 between the silky Hooper and Stuart Williams.
Lambert, whose previous three innings on tour in Bangladesh and here had yielded 20 runs, batted with complete authority against the fast and medium-pace bowlers for two and three-quarter hours and 128 balls for 67 until he was confronted by and fell to spin, against which he is far less comfortable.
Kosie Venter, a floaty off-spinner who gained some turn, won the lbw verdict as Lambert went uncertainly back when the opposite movement would have been the better option.
Chanderpaul who was not at his best, offered chances to slip off medium-pacer Hansie Cronje when three and the lively, bounding Herman Bakkes at 40 but still remained just over two hours, during which he stroked seven fours mainly between third man and extra-cover.
Almost as soon as Lambert went, he followed, nibbling outside the off-stump against the medium-pacer Johan van der Wath in much the same way as Lara had gone in the morning.
They had been progressing comfortably, Lambert especially sure with off-side drives, overhead shots and one eye-catching flick off his legs, when the proceedings, and possibly their concentration, was interrupted by a threatening swarm of bees buzzing across the middle.
Umpires, fielders and batsmen dived flat on the ground for cover, prompting the question from the press box as to whether they had all gone on strike again.
Almost immediately, Lambert played his first false stroke that just lobbed clear of mid-off, Chanderpaul offered his second chance and, soon, both were back in the pavilion.
It meant Hooper and Williams had to start all the rebuilding process all over again.
With Hooper to the fore with one ``Hooper Special'', a classical cover-drive off van der Wath, lofted hits against Venter and cuts against the left-arm spinner Nic Boje, they had established themselves when the rain intervened.
The loss of Wallace after only 10 balls was obviously of more concern than Lara's quick exit.
After his resounding successes in the Wills International Cup in Bangladesh, Wallace has not yet made the necessary adjustment to the less straightforward pitches here.
In the previous match, he was caught at slip advancing to the off-spinner Pat Symcox.
Now he produced two typically savage strokes, a square-cut and an off-drive, off Bakkes before he drove through the line against Victor Mpitsang, the 18-year-old who is the only black player in the home team, and gave a waist-high catch to mid-on.
Lara replaced him and spent the next 40 minutes trying to find his timing on a pitch with bounce, but little pace, following the rains.
Mpitang came close to a famous lbw decision against him when he was three and he had made 10 when he snicked one from Bakkes angled across him from over the wicket to be caught behind. Glenn McGrath, for one, would have recognised the method.
With a half-century and a hundred in his previous two innings, it should not have caused Lara much concern. But Hansie Cronje, the South African captain fielding 20 yards away, would have noted it.
Day 2: McLean Peels Skin Of Orange State
Nixon McLean laid waste South Africa's champion team, Orange Free State, with a spell of unrelenting speed and hostile accuracy in the true tradition of West Indies fast bowling here yesterday.
The strong, massive Vincentian claimed seven of the first eight wickets and finished with his best first-class figures of seven for 28 from 10 successive overs as the provincial team capitulated for 67 all out in their first innings.
On a clear, cloudless day and on a blameless pitch, pace, bounce and precision were the only factors in McLean's success.
It climaxed a great day for him, following his well-made 46 in the continuation of the West Indies first innings in the morning.
His performance also eased concerns prior to Thursday's first Test over the readiness of the two champion fast bowlers, Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh, both bothered by contrasting ailments.
It even lessened the later shock of captain Brian Lara's first-ball dismissal in the second innings, bowled by teenaged medium-pacer Johan van der Wath as he drove.
After McLean's escapades with the bat, he announced himself with a wicket with what was his first ball on tour, the type of nasty, rib-threatening lifter with which he was to torment all the batsmen. The left-handed opener Kosie Venter could do no more than parry it to third slip.
Such uncompromising aggression might have come as an unexpected shock to Hansie Cronje, who will captain South Africa in the coming series.
He was one of McLean's startled victims, uncertainly fending off another steep lifter into the alert grasp of Philo Wallace at square short-leg.
South Africans last encountered the 25-year-old McLean last season on the West Indies ``A'' team tour when, handicapped by a groin injury, he did little to signal such a transformation.
He now bounded in, the breeze at his back, with such confident rhythm he did not concede a no-ball.
With the exception of a wild leg-side delivery in his opening over that streaked past wicket-keeper Ridley Jacobs for four byes, he rarely allowed the batsmen the liberty of letting the ball pass.
Until he tired, and the spunky, 19-year-old wicket-keeper Morne van Wyk counterattacked with two hooks and a cut for three of the four boundaries taken off him, McLean looked likely to take a wicket every ball.
Three of the wickets were grasped by the predatory Wallace under the bat – Gerry Liebenberg, the captain and Test opener; Cronje, and the left-handed Nic Boje, another Test candidate.
Venter and Herman Bakkes were caught in the slips, Louis Wilkinson by the keeper from a panicky hook shot predicated by the previous ball that cracked into his arm guard, and Jonathan Beukes was plainly lbw.
While McLean enthusiastically charged in, Ambrose carefully eased himself back into action.
He confined himself to a shortened run, had 10 overs in two spells, conceded a mere 12 runs and took an early wicket when Boeta Dippenhaar raised his bat to let a breakback hit off-stump.
With McLean at the end of his tether Dinanath Ramnarine came on and accounted for the last two wickets.
In between McLean's heroics, the West Indies batsmen had the chance of some Test preparation, Lara predictably choosing to bat a second time in spite of the lead of 249.
At the tailend of the first innings, only McLean took the opportunity of useful time in the middle, remaining 70 minutes and limiting himself to just one of his customary mighty blows, a six off Venter that cleared the long-off boundary by a good 20 feet.
Merv Dillon also enjoyed himself and his bent-knee cover-drive off fast bowler Bakkes was the shot of the match so far.
Stuart Williams and Ridley Jacobs, who needed the time more, fell quickly off successive balls from the black, teenaged fast bowler, Victor Mpitang, caught off edged slashes.
At least Williams had another chance over the last hour and 40 minutes in which he and Clayton Lambert added 71 following the trauma of Lara's dismissal.
Earlier, Wallace batted with assurance and judgement for 28 from 42 balls.
Day 3: West Indies In A Daze
Lulled by their dominant position, the West Indies drifted into the collective dreamland that has become all too familiar territory of late here yesterday and were in distinct danger of paying for their complacency with an incredible and humiliating loss.
Unable, even seemingly unwilling, to shake themselves out of their self-induced slumber, they were within 26 runs of a defeat this morning by Free State that would rank among the most remarkable any international touring side has ever suffered outside a Test match.
Not many teams in the game's long history have managed to lose after routing the opposition for 67 and leading by 249 on first innings but not many teams could have been as inexcusably slack as the West Indies were yesterday.
The situation was compounded by the fact that the debacle came four days before the opening Test of a series of immense significance on Thursday and that South Africa's captain for that Test, Hansie Cronje, led Free State's astonishing charge to a target of 438 with 147 not out off 141 balls.
As he smashed the ball to all parts of the vast outfield and six times out of it, he treated the bowling, to use the term in its loosest sense, with disdain.
Scoring all but 11 of the 109 runs he added in just over an hour for the unbroken ninth wicket with Johan van der Wath, he made a mockery of captain Brian Lara's claim on an extra half-hour in an effort to end the match.
In that time, 70 were added in the gathering gloom, Lara allowing the onslaught against the expensive leg-spin of Dinanath Ramnarine and the wayward pace of Merv Dillon and declining to bring back the wily Curtly Ambrose or the pacy Nixon McLean. Instead, he turned to Carl Hooper's off-spin for the final couple of overs and Cronje promptly clobbered him for three gigantic straight sixes to add to the other three smote over midwicket off Ramnarine.
Earlier, Boeta Dippenaar, a classical front-foot driver, with 82 off 100 balls with a six and 12 fours before he was run out at the bowler's end in a muddle with Cronje, and the left-handed opener Kosie Venter, with 53 off 60 balls (a six and six fours) had exposed the West Indies' complacency and gone a long way to expunging their shame of the first innings.
Yet when Ramnarine, finding lower-order batsmen who couldn't read his googly, got his third wicket by seizing a return catch off Herman Bakkes, the home team were 303 for eight, still 135 away from what then seemed an impossible dream. Cronje rapidly changed that equation with his heavy-hitting blitz.
The laid back West Indies' mood had been evident from the start. So far ahead after McLean's destruction on Saturday that there was little likelihood of being caught and with time before the Test running out, the plan for the day would have been obvious.
It was the chance of the batsmen to secure some more necessary time in the middle and for the bowlers to then start their press for victory. The reality proved to be far different.
The last eight second innings wickets went for 76 in the morning, five of them off 14 balls for a solitary run at one stage. van der Wath, an enthusiastic 20-year-old medium-pacer in his fourth first-class match, finished with the flattering figures of five for 26, his best, supported by Cronje's gentle swing that earned him three wickets in the late-order tumble.
The two would join again to cause West Indies more misery.
A total of 188 still left the West Indies bowlers the comfortable cushion of an unlikely winning target of 438 for Free State and more than five full sessions to finish them off.
On the basis of their first innings all-out 67, the equation seemed simple enough.
Instead, McLean couldn't find his earlier rhythm and, consequently, neither the same speed and venom that had been so devastating a day earlier, and was given only 11 overs.
Ambrose remained largely in cruise control in his 12 overs, Dillon was punished for his erratic line and length on a flat pitch demanding tight control, Hooper was given only two brief spells and Ramnarine's first prolonged bowl since the President's Cup last April reflected his rustiness.
As the scoreboard repeatedly flashed out messages of ``Good Shot!'', ``Wow!'', ``Another Four!'' and ``What A Six!'', the scoring rate rose to 4.84 runs an over.
The longhops, half-volleys and full tosses came in such abandance that the next demand of the players to the board will be for danger money for the close fielders. Four times they were hit.
The tone of the day was set by the appalling batting in the morning.
Lambert and Stuart Williams had the satisfaction of passing 50 but both were more than a third of the way there at the start and promptly departed after crossing their milestones.
Ridley Jacobs struggled for an hour and a quarter over 19, Shivnarine Chanderpaul an hour for 12 and Hooper, stuck on two while one partner after another took rapid leave, was the last man out.
Dippenaar's run out and Ramnarine's dominance over the lower order set them back so that the West Indies appeared certain to win in spite of themselves. But then came Cronje.
Day 4: Free State Perform Last Rites
Hansie Cronje and Johan van der Wath took only 33 minutes and 6.4 overs yesterday morning to complete Orange Free State's astonishing victory by two wickets and put the finishing touches to the indignities they had heaped on the West Indies the previous afternoon.
To the cheers of their teammates and a couple hundred joyful supporters who comprised the biggest turnout of the match, the South African captain and his young partner accumulated the 26 runs they needed to reach the formidable winning target of 438 with only one scare when they were only two away from their famous triumph.
Five overs overdue, West Indies captain Brian Lara immediately claimed the new ball he had inexplicably shunned during Cronje's heavy-handed blitz the day before that left the opponents he will meet in the first Test on Thursday shell-shocked.
Lara relied on the tried and trusted Curtly Ambrose and the destroyer of the first innings, Nixon McLean, to save the shame of a shocking defeat, but neither could make an impression on two batsmen determined not to let slip this moment of glory.
Cronje square-cut his first ball, a wide long-hop from McLean, for his 14th four but, while he had dominated their stand of 109 to such an extent overnight that van der Wath had contributed only 9, the steady No.10 now added 14, ending unbeaten 23, to Cronje's 11 that carried him to 157.
He collected seven from edged ground strokes past the slips off Ambrose for three and four, and once scrambled a last-ball bye to give Cronje the strike, negating McLean's tactical high bouncer that sailed through to Ridley Jacobs 20 yards back.
With one to level scores, two to win, another McLean bouncer induced a clean hook from Cronje that sailed straight into Ambrose's lap at long-leg, placed, as it happened, directly in front of the majority of chortling spectators.
As the ball popped out of Ambrose's cupped hand, the batsmen crossed for a single and the 23-year-old van der Wath, in his fourth first-class match, completed a memorable four days with a push to midwicket for the winning run to add to his haul of seven wickets with his nippy medium-pace swing.
The entire Orange Free State team trooped onto the field to greet their heroes and players from both sides exchanged handshakes on the field before heading for dressing rooms of distinctly contrasting moods.
Inevitably, there were a rash of records to be noted. It was the second highest total ever recorded to win a first-class match in South Africa, behind the Universities 500 for seven against Western Province in 1978/79, and Orange Free State's highest total against a touring team, passing the 396 against the Australians five years ago when Cronje also featured with an innings of 251.
The stand of 135 between Cronje and van der Wath was a new Orange Free State record for the ninth wicket, ten more than Franklyn Stephenson, the Barbadian all-rounder who gave such sterling service here, and Herman Bakkes added against Eastern Province three years ago.