West Indies v South Africa 'A'

An elegant, unbeaten century by left-hander Shivnarine Chanderpaul took the West Indies first innings to 256 for six after the abbreviated second day of their match against South Africa A at the Oval on Sunday.

While the stylish Chanderpaul provided the best batting performance of the West Indies tour so far, the visitors had little else to congratulate themselves over, slipping to 119 for five before Chanderpaul (132 not out) rescued the innings in partnership with Junior Murray (45).

Batting throughout a day in which the action ended at 2pm due to bad light followed by rain, Chanderpaul looked in a different league to the other West Indian batsmen, being prepared to grind an innings out but also showing sweet timing in scoring a glorious six and 20 other boundaries.

His successful occupation of the crease and the amount of time lost to the elements has probably ensured that the West Indies are the only possible winners of the game, although asking an attack without Curtly Ambrose or Courtney Walsh to bowl the South Africans out cheaply twice in less than two days, an overnight declaration not on the cards, is perhaps wishing for too much on a slow pitch.

Chanderpaul, who was 27 not out overnight, went to his century after 201 minutes, although he needed two bits of charity from the home side, Makhaya Ntini being the culprit on both occasions.

Ntini, the A team's most expensive bowler, conceding 50 runs in 10 overs as Chanderpaul put him to the sword, wasted a good chance to dismiss his nemesis on 95 when Lance Klusener induced a looping drive to mid-on which he was slow to respond to. Chanderpaul's other piece of luck brought up his century when an Ntini overthrow gave him a second run when on 98.

Klusener's attacking fast bowling has been one of the features of the game so far and he caused the collapse to 119 for five after the West Indies resumed Sunday morning on 77 for three. Darren Ganga, who had put on 71 with Chanderpaul without ever breaking loose, edged an off-drive to Sven Koenig in the gully after scoring 21. He was replaced at the crease by Floyd Reifer, also a young batsman bidding for a Test place. But the late replacement for Jimmy Adams was to suffer cruel disappointment as the Natal speedster sent down another thunderbolt which trapped him leg-before without playing a shot to his first ball. Klusener very nearly got his hat-trick when his first ball to Murray beat the wicketkeeper all ends up without finding the edge.

Murray never really settled at the crease, but he showed the necessary tenacity in scoring 45 in just under two hours and indicating that he could pass as a specialist batsman for the Kingsmead Test next weekend.

The impressive Eastern Province all-rounder Justin Kemp got rid of Murray after lunch, inducing a catch to Shafiek Abrahams in the gully.

With the second new ball freshly taken and just the bowlers left to support Chanderpaul, the South Africans would have fancied their chances of quickly making further in-roads, but sadly, following the meagre action of the first day, the umpires were forced to take the players off the field at 2pm due to bad light.

They never returned and Chanderpaul said after play was eventually abandoned that the West Indians would look to bat on for as long as possible on Monday.

``There are no plans to declare, so we'll be batting hopefully for a long time yet. It's a nice, flat pitch once you are in, and you've really got to get yourself out.''

Chanderpaul said he was determined to get to three figures after narrowly missing out against Border recently, and was also happy to be ``timing the ball very well''.

The batting hero also paid tribute to Klusener, the pick of the bowlers with three for 47 from 19 overs. ``He bowled very well, fast and he's swinging it around too.''

Sadly, although there has been some good cricket on show, most of the attention has been focused on the time lost, due to the ill-judged bad light suspension of the first day and Sunday's entirely justifiable decision, and one can only hope that play can get underway at the proposed starting time of 10am Monday.

Footnote: Those people with tickets for Saturday's play, when the umpires stopped play after 34.2 overs, will be allowed into the Oval free of charge for Tuesday's final day.