The left-handed Chanderpaul, once more used as opener, disregarded the trauma of the loss of Philo Wallace to the first ball of the match, Nixon McLean to the sixth and captain Brian Lara in the ninth over to stroke his way to a score rarely achieved in the shortened form of the game, 150 off only 136 balls.

Hooper joined him after Shaun Pollock removed Lara for the third of his six wickets and batted with the ease and fluency that are his hallmarks and the application and common sense that are not for 108 off 119 balls.

Their fourth-wicket stand of 226 that boosted the total from 46 for three after nine overs to 272 for four when Hooper hoisted a catch to long-on, completely dominated a West Indies total of 292 for nine from the 50 overs.

It eclipsed the previous overall West Indies standard for any wicket in a One-Day International, 221 between Gordon Greenidge and Viv Richards against India at Jamshedpur in 1983 when victories were commonplace, not rarities. It is difficult to imagine even those two greats playing more attractively or even more commandingly than Chanderpaul and Hooper.

Handicap

Even though the challenge was never entirely beyond South Africas capacity, the loss of three wickets for 18 within the first six miserly overs from Curtly Ambrose and Reon King was too much of a handicap. They were beaten by 43 runs when their last hope, the left-handed Lance Klusener, hero of their last-ball victory in the opener in Johannesburg on Friday night, was run out by Neil McGarrells swift pick-up and return to the bowler off the fifth ball of the 47th over.

The result levelled the seven-match series 1-1 and gave a welcome boost to West Indies morale. It was their first win over South Africa in any form of the game since the World Cup quarter-final in Lahore in 1996, since when they have gone under in three Internationals and five Tests. The third match is under the lights in Durban on Wednesday.

On a hot, sunny, humid day, on a basically true pitch and an outfield as smooth as glass, the eventual tally of 541 runs with four sixes and 50 fours was rich entertainment for a cheerful, multi-racial crowd of nearly 15 000. But there were misleading beginnings to each innings.

After the West Indies were sent in, Wallace sliced Pollocks opening ball into third mans lap and McLean, inexplicably retained at No. 3, pulled his sixth limply to mid-on. When the uncertain Lara (3 off 26 balls) sent a catch to point off the leading edge off Pollocks last ball of the ninth over, 46 for three represented a potential crisis.

By then, Chanderpaul was in full flow, punishing the short balls of Jacques Kallis with rasping pulls and hooks and revealing what the pitch was really like. The threatening Pollock was removed after six overs for 15, and all three wickets, after which the fourth-wicket partners, whose only similarity is their Guyanese nationality, took command.

Each had the moment of luck needed in any big stand. Chanderpaul, the neat, lightweight left-hander, was 34 when he sliced a catch to third man off Pollocks solitary no-ball. When 17, Hooper, right-handed and physically sizeable, drove Klusener a straightforward and unaccepted return chance.

Thereafter, neither gave, nor looked like giving, a chance.

While Chanderpaul pounced on the short ball with savage hooks and pulls and cuts and drove with equal facility on the other side of the wicket, Hooper danced down to hoist the left-arm spinner Nick Boje twice straight for sixes and dipped onto his knee to sweep him for another.

Both duly raised their hundreds: Chanderpauls second in One-day Internationals, and fourth and highest for West Indies at any level; Hoopers sixth in One-Dayers.

Hooper didnt extend his much further, adding only eight on passing three figures, counting eight fours to his sixes as his boundaries.

Chanderpaul is not inclined to spurn the obvious opportunity for a big score and continued until the 48th over before he attempted a little improvisation that went wrong.

Moving inside his wicket to glance, he left his leg-stump exposed and Pollock, in his second spell, removed it. Only one of his 20 fours, a genuine edge off Pollock late in his innings, didnt go where he intended.

No one else but extras (13) passed double-figures, a remarkable statistic in such a total but indicative of the present dependence on so few batsmen.

Urgency

Pollocks 6-35 off his 10 overs in two spells dominated South Africas bowling as much as Chanderpaul and Hooper did the West Indies batting.

When South Africa responded, there was a distinct urgency about the West Indies effort. The speed of the new recruits, Arthurton, McGarrell and Keith Semple, across ground set standards never achieved in the Tests and there was a new intensity in the outcricket, even if there remained some fumbling and a couple of dropped catches.

Arthurton clung on to a sensational catch at point, tumbling over to his right to dismiss Daryll Cullinan, and there were three run outs. Wallaces diving save at short midwicket and rapid return to the ever-alert Ridley Jacobs took care of Pollock, Lara at last bulls-eyed the stumps to claim Boje, and McGarrells swift pick-up and pinpoint return to bowler McLean ended the match with the wicket of Klusener.

Twice, but only twice, South Africa looked to be getting back into contention.

After confining them to 21 for three in the first 10 overs, Ambrose suddenly sent down five no-balls in his sixth over that cost 14, Reon King and the wayward McLean (32 off three overs) were hit around, and 55 were added by Kallis and Jonty Rhodes between the 10th and 15th overs.

That threat passed when Rhodes chipped King to midwicket for 21. Kallis had made 51 (66 balls, seven fours) when he swung Hoopers leg-side off-spin to deep backward square-leg, and it was not until Boucher and Klusener were together that nerves began to be frayed.

The West Indians on the field kept theirs.

Boucher swung Arthurtons left-arm slow stuff, used instead of Ambrose at the end, into deep midwickets lap after delighting his home crowd with 51 off 52 balls with four fours, and the West Indies had won, a rare achievement these days, as McGarrells pace, pick-up and quick release from deep midwicket to bowler McLean found Klusener run out for 46 from 44 balls.

At least now there wont be a whitewash in the One-Day internationals as well.

More: At Last! - Caribbean cricketers finally beat SA

West Indies cricket lovers breathed a sigh of relief when the Caribbean side recorded their first international win over their South African hosts on their tour and levelled the seven-match One-Day series.

South Africa, replying to West Indies' challenging total of 292 for nine, were bowled out for 249 in 46.5 overs. West Indies won by 43 runs.

A record fourth-wicket stand of 226 off 225 balls between Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Carl Hooper rescued the tourists after they had been reduced to 46 for three.

Their partnership was a West Indies record for the fourth wicket in all limited overs internationals.

Chanderpaul's brilliant 150 was his highest One-Day score and the highest by any batsman against South Africa. Hooper made 108.

The rest of the West Indies batting was dismal, with no one else even reaching double figures.

Man-Of-The-Match Chanderpaul faced 136 deliveries and hit 20 fours before he was bowled by Shaun Pollock in the 48th over. Hooper had fallen in the previous over, caught at long-on by Pollock off Lance Klusener.

Hooper, dropped on 18, scored his runs off 119 balls with eight fours and three sixes.

West Indies began in disastrous fashion when they lost Philo Wallace and Nixon McLean in the opening over, bowled by Pollock.

South Africa struck again late in the innings, taking the last six wickets for 18. Three of them fell to Pollock who recorded career-best figures of six for 35.

South Africa also got off to a poor start, slumping to 18 for three in the sixth over, two of the wickets falling to pacer Reon King, who ended with three for 40.

A fourth-wicket stand of 60 between Jacques Kallis and Jonty Rhodes kept South Africa in touch with the required run rate of 5.86.

But in the 16th over, Rhodes was caught at midwicket by Neil McGarrell off King for 21. Kallis fell in the 25th over for 51, caught by Keith Semple off Hooper at deep fine-leg for 51.

Two overs later, Pollock was run out by Wallace for six and South Africa's fate was all but sealed in the 33rd over when Hansie Cronje was bowled through his legs by Hooper for 34.

Mark Boucher, who made his highest score of 51, and Klusener, last out for 46, ensured South Africa went down fighting with an eighth-wicket stand of 64.

The third match of the series is in Durban on Wednesday.