JOHANNESBURG - The West Indies began their much-fanfared inaugural Test in South Africa with the expected bang yesterday; but then had to choose more conventional methods to ensure they didn't entirely squander the advantage of winning the toss.

Batting on a true, straw-coloured pitch they believe will aid spin by the fourth day, they rattled up 53 off 13 overs in the first hour, mainly through a varied and breathtaking array of nine boundaries.

By then, they had also lost three wickets, the daredevil openers Clayton Lambert and Philo Wallace and captain Brian Lara, spectacularly bowled off the inside-edge for 11, all to the impressive Shaun Pollock who had also floored a couple of stiff return catches in the bargain.

With a small section of the Starlift steelband from Trinidad and the 50 or so flag-waving supporters from the Caribbean adding to the atmosphere, this was the excitement South Africans feared they might be denied as Lara and his colleagues were making their board sweat over the pay negotiations in London that jeopardised, and ultimately, delayed the tour.

But it couldn't last and the remainder of the day developed into more measured fare as the West Indies battled to recoup their early losses.

A close of play 249 for seven, with only the bowlers remaining, was not a convincing return but the West Indies are so convinced that spin will eventually come into its own, that they declared Rawl Lewis in their eleven merely two-and-a- half hours after he had completed the 14-hour flight from India, where he was on the ``A'' team tour, as replacement for the injured first-choice leg-spinner Dinanath Ramnarine.

Not since Everton Weekes arrived at Sabina Park after lunch on the first day to score the first of his record five Test hundreds against England in 1948 and Gary Sobers, Rohan Kanhai and Wes Hall flew in from Australia on the morning of the first Test against India at the Queen's Park Oval in 1962 has any West Indian been pressed into service so desperately.

Lara's luck with the toss allowed Lewis to unwind for a while but not for long.

Within 40 minutes, with three down, he would have been contemplating an early hand.

Instead, after the initial fireworks, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, topscorer with 74 that occupied more than a third of the day, and Carl Hooper, 44, spent two-and-a-quarter hours rebuilding the innings with a circumspect partnership of 91 for the fourth wicket.

When Chanderpaul became stalled after passing 50 off 124 balls, requiring 86 to add a further 24, Stuart Williams dominated a further stand of 45 with the timing that makes his strokeplay such a joy to watch.

The patient South Africans snared all three before the total reached 200 and it was left to commendable, sensible resistance from the big fast bowler Nixon McLean, unbeaten 23 over the last three-quarters of an hour, with help from wicket-keeper Ridley Jacobs and, over the final 25 minutes, Lewis, to see out the day.

They were called into action after Hooper and Williams succumbed to the kind of loose strokes that have so often been their undoing when well set and the solid Chanderpaul was lbw after a vigil that lasted four-and-a-half hours and 210 balls.

Allan Donald accounted for both Hooper, taken at solitary slip off an airy swish outside off-stump, and Chanderpaul, consolation prizes for the rough treatment South Africa's premier fast bowler had received in the frenetic exchanges before lunch when his eight overs were plundered for 50 runs.

Among them were nine fours. Lambert punched his last ball through extra-cover, Wallace pulled him forward of square and lofted him over midwicket, Lara announced his arrival with a cover-drive and, when they had all gone and Donald returned for a second spell, Hooper helped himself to four boundaries off successive balls, an off-drive, a pull, a hook and, first up next over, another off-drive.

It was all too much to continue.

Lambert despatched another drive to the cover-boundary off Pollock and, over-confident, drove wildly wide of off-stump and just managed to edge to the 'keeper.

Wallace and Lara were less culpable, both beaten by balls that cut back to send the off-stump cartwheeling, Lara's off an uncertain inside-edge.

The situation was tailor-made for Chanderpaul who is one of those individuals who thrives in a crisis. Water-tight in defence but quick to attack with square-cuts and deft leg glances, he was the surer of the two in his stand with Hooper.

Dropped by Pollock off his third ball, Hooper was soon obliged to use Wallace as his runner for much of his innings after sliding into the splits like the gymnast he is not on a forward stroke and straining a groin muscle.

But he kept his head long enough to rebuild the innings after the early difficulties.

Chanderpaul went past him after lunch with several eye-catching strokes against the varied attack and, after an hour, Hooper's concentration clearly started to wane.

No sooner than the drinks cart left the field than he was dropped by Jonty Rhodes at mid-wicket off the wily off-spinner Pat Symcox.

Next over, he fanned at Donald outside off-stump and got a mid-pitch lecture from Chanderpaul.

It made no difference as, four balls later, he made contact with the same stroke and edged to the solitary slip.

By then Chanderpaul had passed 50 for the 16th time in his 31 Tests and became becalmed by the controlled variation of Symcox.

Williams' response was so positive that he scored 35 of the 45 runs they added over an hour and 10 minutes, only to undo the good work with a poorly-judged hook that gave David Terbrugge, the tall, flame-haired fast bowler, his deserving first Test wicket as the ball lobbed to mid-on.

Ten overs later Chanderpaul, aiming to leg, fell to a ball of good length from Donald, delivered from over the wicket, and the West Indies still had to pass 200.

The left-handed McLean and Jacobs and the right-handed Lewis ensured there was not the accustomed lower-order capitulation with a steady approach over the final hour and 10 minutes.

Jacobs took 36 minutes over his first run in Test cricket but did not lose patience until he decided to take on the nippy Jacques Kallis, using the second new ball after Terbrugge left the field with a slight side strain. He was late on the hook and was caught at mid-on.

But McLean remained unbowed and Lewis, somewhat less secure, ended his first day in South Africa with more batting to look forward to.

Day 2: West Indies Bite Back

JOHANNESBURG - Inspired, yet again, by the class, commitment and sheer willpower of the indomitable Courtney Walsh, the West Indies regained a position of parity on the second day of the first Test against South Africa at the Wanderers Stadium yesterday.

Defending an unsatisfactory total of 261 on a true pitch with a bowling staff diminished by the absence of the steady off-spin of the injured Carl Hooper, they limited South Africa to 217 for six when the extended play was halted, for the second and final time, by murky light.

The second of Walsh's four critical wickets carried him past the watching coach Malcolm Marshall's West Indies Test record of 376 wickets in his 103rd Test - and to fourth on the overall list.

The ageless wonder kept going for 19.4 overs, oblivious to either the 28-degree Celcius sunshine or the tendinitis in his 36-year-old right knee that had put his place in the match in jeopardy only a few days earlier.

As remarkable as it was, Walsh's effort was hardly surprising. He has passed this way several times in his 14 years as a Test cricketer, making light of adversity - indeed, thriving on it - in the name of one seemingly hopeless cause or another.

At the end of the day, he was a mere 55 wickets short of the Indian Kapil Dev's overall Test standard of 434 and, at his current rate, that is a mere 15 Tests away.

In other words, it's just around the corner for a bowler who is seemingly getting better with each passing match and losing none of his enthusiasm for the challenge.

Throughout, Walsh was supported by ground fielding that maintained a high and rare standard.

Shivnarine Chanderpaul was outstanding in the run-saving positions on both sides of the wicket, and there were two outstanding catches, by Stuart Williams at second slip and Ridley Jacobs behind the wicket.

Brian Lara's handling of reduced resources also kept the lid on the South Africans who went two steps backward every time they had taken one forward.

Curtly Ambrose was bothered by a lack of rhythm that led to ten no-balls in his 20 overs but, as always, rarely sent down a bad ball.

Nixon McLean's speed was compromised by his inconsistent line and length on an unsympathetic pitch but he still secured two critical wickets in a telling second spell.

Rawl Lewis gained little response from the surface for his leg-breaks and occasional googly but filled his role admirably and, with a little luck, would have had a wicket. His influence may well be more pronounced in three days' time.

The reassuring presence of captain Hansie Cronje, unbeaten 39, the most proficient lower order in the contemporary game and bowlers who are bound to be foot-weary on resumption today is counterbalanced for the home team by the prospect of batting last on a dry pitch on which the evident cracks are widening by the hour.

Walsh's performance was preceded by an opening half-hour of uncompromising pace and hostility from Shaun Pollock and Allan Donald that quickly despatched the last three West Indies wickets in a quarter the time and for a quarter the runs hoped for.

Pollock inflicted a resounding blow to the helmet of fellow fast bowler McLean in the over following a top-edged hook off Donald that was dropped by Gary Kirsten at fine-leg and then claimed him to a keeper's catch next ball.

Pollock similarly accounted for Ambrose. He gained figures of five for 54, having started the West Indies' problems with the wickets of Clayton Lambert, Philo Wallace and Lara in his opening spell 24 hours earlier.

Donald completed the final signature when Lewis pulled a catch to mid-on.

Walsh struck back immediately, in his second over, with as unplayable a ball as he would have bowled in all his time.

Angled into the unfortunate Adam Bacher, it cut away on pitching to find a probing edge on its way to 'keeper Jacobs' safe gloves.

It was a misleading beginning and the West Indies had to wait another 33 overs, until an hour-and-a-quarter after lunch, for Walsh to intervene again with his record-breaking wicket, soon followed by another, both to wonderful catches.

In the interim, Kirsten, the left-handed opener, resolutely dug in while Jacques Kallis, a more naturally gifted right-hander, assumed the dominant role.

There was the odd close call, such as an inside-edge by Kallis off McLean that shaved the stumps on its way to the fine-leg boundary, an lbw appeal for Ambrose against Kallis at 37, a cross-batted slog by Kirsten at Lewis that just cleared mid-on, and a couple of Lewis googlies that Kallis didn't pick.

But they both took toll of any bad ball in adding 92 before Kallis was snared inches from the grass and wide to his right by the alert Williams at second slip. Most of Kallis' eight fours in an enterprising 53 off 112 balls were from pulls or off-side drives.

Darryl Cullinan replaced him, cut Lewis for four and three and then was taken far down the leg-side by the tumbling Jacobs.

Umpire David Shepherd needed a double-take before finally granting general West Indian pleas for a catch that came from the face of the bat.

Jacobs, who made his Test debut yesterday on his 31st birthday, has fitted easily into the position.

These are early days yet and David Williams, Junior Murray and Courtney Browne all had flattering early reviews. Suffice it to say that Jacobs' handling yesterday belied the impression that his keeping is weak.

With Walsh resting and Ambrose overstriding the front crease for more no-balls than he is used to, Lara resorted to McLean and his fellow Windward Islander Lewis to keep the situation in check, drying up the boundaries with fields placed in strategic defence.

In his best spell after tea, McLean accounted for Kirsten - who dragged one back into his stumps after spending three-and-a-half hours over 62 and putting on 52 with Cronje - and Jonty Rhodes, crease-bound and lbw for 17.

By now, the Starlift steelband was pounding out Rudder's Rally Round The West Indies and the balance was levelling off.

An overhanging cloud cast such a shadow over the ground that the umpires halted play for half-hour, but the tireless Walsh was not through with his day's work yet.

When the sun burst through again and play resumed, he had the benefit of needed rest, short as it was.

Lara summoned him and Ambrose for a final burst and he unsettled Pollock to an extent that he induced a wild pull stroke with the evening closing in.

He missed it and the ball clipped the off-bail to conclude a memorable day in the life in the memorable career of a unique fast bowler.

Day 3: Test In The Balance

By the time they took lunch at the Wanderers Stadium yesterday, the first Test between South Africa and the West Indies on South African territory had evolved into a straightforward second innings contest.

Within 20 minutes, a thunderstorm of tropical intensity arrived to quickly transform the outfield into a swamp, ending play for the day and leaving only two days to achieve a result in an intriguing match that has confirmed the evenness of two teams.

There is provision for a compensatory additional half-hour to be tacked on at the start and at the end of the third day today, so there is time enough for a definite outcome to a tense struggle mostly dominated by the bowlers on a slow pitch of unreliable bounce. But the weather forecasts are not encouraging.

In the first session yesterday, uninterrupted in sunny, if humid, weather, South Africa, 216 for six at the start replying to 261, eeked out a first innings lead of seven through a last-wicket partnership of 25 engineered by Pat Symcox, Test cricket's oldest player at 38, with the debutant David Terbrugge his passive but co-operative associate.

It was a minor psychological point that was erased in quick time by the West Indies openers and the home team could find itself under pressure on the final day as the myriad cracks on the surface are widening by the hour.

In any case, the exchanges have done more for West Indian morale at the start of a long season of five Tests and seven One-Day Internationals that both sides accept will determine which stands second to Australia in the present pecking-order.

The West Indies entered the match beset by a rash of problems but, if anything, the adversity seems to have acted as a stimulus.

While the delicate impasse with the board over fees and conditions that initially jeopardised the tour proved a unifying factor, it delayed their arrival and shortened their preparation time.

The loss of Jimmy Adams, a versatile and experienced cricketer, and later that of Dinanath Ramnarine, upset the balance of the side and Curtly Ambrose's loss of a toenail and Courtney Walsh's ankle and knee pains were unwanted setbacks for two fast bowlers in their mid-30s.

Once on the field, they found they had to make do without the steady off-spin of Carl Hooper throughout South Africa's first innings as Dennis Waight attended to the groin muscle he strained when batting on Thursday, hoping to have him ready for the second half of the match.

Even with these headaches, the West Indies think-tank still the gumption to put Ramnarine's replacement, Rawl Lewis, into the Test eleven only a couple of hours after his arrival from the ``A'' team tour of India, a gamble that might yet have its rewards on the last day.

Their batsmen showed commendable resolve to recover to 261 after the loss of three wickets, including captain Lara, for 41 inside the first 40 minutes, and their continuing fightback was initiated on the second day by Courtney Walsh's high-class bowling and huge heart.

As well as keeping South Africa in check, Walsh's four wickets placed him top of the class of West Indian bowlers in Tests, knocking off the 376 standard of his coach, Malcolm Marshall.

In comparison, South Africa had few worries. They have felt the loss of their injured all-rounder Lance Kluesner and might have been distracted by the political row over the all-white complexion of their eleven.

But they had reason to feel that the best time to hit the West Indies was now, before they could regroup. Instead, they have encountered spirited opposition.

On resumption yesterday, it needed their unbeaten captain, Hansie Cronje, and the lower order to build a meaningful lead from the platform of 216 for six. Instead, it was time for Walsh's long-time accomplice, Ambrose, to have a say in things.

He was wicketless through 20 overs on Friday but, after Lewis gained his first Test wicket by removing wicket-keeper Mark Butcher in the fourth over to a top paddle-sweep that Lara pouched running around from slip, Ambrose struck twice with the second new ball.

The first blow was decisive. It induced an inside-edge from Cronje that diverted the ball into his middle stump. A dangerous opponent, he had added only two to his overnight 41, and when Ridley Jacobs held a breathtaking, grass-high catch in front of first slip from Allan Donald - so low it needed to be confirmed by TV replay - South Africa were still 18 in arrears.

It was Jacobs' second outstanding dismissal of the innings, following his take down the leg-side off Daryl Cullinan, and his performance on his belated Test debut at 31 has been another early plus for the West Indies.

It fell to Symcox, the off-spinner, cleverly sheltering Terbrugge, to secure the lead for South Africa to the delight of a disappointingly modest turnout of around 10 000.

Symcox's age, Falstaffian figure and combative attitude seem to have a strange effect on opponents. He has repeated success in similar situations and has, understandably, become a huge favourite with the cricket public here.

He scored an aggressive 108 batting at No. 10 in his previous Test, on this same ground, against Pakistan last February in a match also spoiled by the weather. He was then dropped and ignored for eight matches until now.

But his value was once more evident as he frustrated West Indian efforts for an hour-and-a-half.

Refusing singles to deep-set fields to protect Terbrugge, an unknown quanitity in his first Test, Symcox benefited from a couple of lapses in the field - substitute Floyd Reifer allowing a boundary to slip through his grasp at long-leg; and Nixon McLean fumbling a simple chance at long-on off Ambrose that allowed the single to put South Africa ahead.

It took Walsh to made his final strike of the innings with a direct underarm hit of the stumps from midwicket to run out Symcox.

The margin was negligible and the openers, Clayton Lambert and Philo Wallace, had safely knocked it off by the time the heavens opened. Now it's up to the batsmen to compile a total sufficient for their bowlers to pressurise the South Africans on the final day.

Day 4: South Africa Test A Fight To The Finish

JOHANNESBURG - The storyline was familiar and depressing as the West Indies' batsmen let the first Test against South Africa gradually slip from their grasp here yesterday.

Only history, the continuing presence of Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh, two great and courageous fast bowlers who have made a habit of redeeming such frequent failures, and a cracked and untrustworthy pitch kept hope flickering of yet another miracle.

Once more, the technical and temperamental frailities of the batsmen, cause of so much distress to their faithful followers in recent times, was exposed by disciplined bowling and run-saving field placing.

Bowled out for 170 in their second innings, Shaun Pollock's four wickets carrying him to 100 in only his 26th Test, they again left their overburdened bowlers with the herculean job of retrieving a daunting situation.

When, for the second successive day, the light darkened, the lightning flashed, the thunder rolled and the rain arrived at the Wanderers Stadium to end the fourth day three-quarters of an hour after tea, 28 overs early, South Africa were just about to set out on their quest for 164 for victory.

Memories have inevitably been stirred of the last-day drama of the only previous Test between the teams, at Kensington Oval in Barbados in 1992.

Then, to the background of deserted, boycotted stands, South Africa began the last day 122 for two, a mere 79 away from their incredible prospect of winning what was their first Test following the international sentence of 22 years sporting solitary confinement for the apartheid policy of their minority white government.

Fired by the realisation that it was more than just another cricket match and by their rejection by the Barbadian public, the same Ambrose and Walsh, on whom the West Indies again depend, wrecked South Africa's optimistic hopes by routing the last eight wickets for 26 to secure a famous triumph by 52 runs.

It is an indignity South African cricketers have waited ever since to expunge, none more so than Hansie Cronje, their captain now who was playing the first of his 52 Tests then.

Ambrose and Walsh have achieved similar rescue acts several times since and, even that much older, will not be easily denied.

Just as Cronje will raise the spectre of Kensington 1992 to rouse his men, so will the West Indies be stirred by those recollections and the knowledge that, in every way, this outcome is no less significant.

But their support is limited to the inexperience of fast bowler Nixon McLean, in his fourth Test, and leg-spinner Rawl Lewis, in his second, and is likely to be again without the valuable off-spin of Carl Hooper because of the strained groin muscle that prevented him bowling in the first innings and forced him to twice bat with a runner.

The bigger threat to South Africa's hopes is the stormy weather which has brought play to an early end over the past two days.

After restricting South Africa to a negligible lead of seven on the third day, the West Indies appeared to hold the advantage when they continued their second innings already 13 to the good on a ground that had quickly recovered from its drenching of the day before.

With the prospect of bowling on a last-day pitch of dubious quality, a total of 250 should have been sufficient. They never looked like getting near.

They were choked by the quality pace combination of Pollock and Allan Donald, which accounted for Philo Wallace, Brian Lara and Shivnarine Chanderpaul for 38 within the first 50 minutes, and were never allowed to break free.

Wallace, woefully aiming across the line, dragged Pollock's 11th ball of the day back into his middle-stump with a crooked bat, and Lara and Chanderpaul were clear lbw victims - the captain stuck on the crease by a ball that kept low from Donald, and Chanderpaul hit in front of off-stump as he shuffled into line.

It was a tough grind after that. There was scarcely a discernible bad ball, Donald conceding two singles from his first 5.4 overs and Pollock 17 from his first seven for the rich return of the two prized left-handers.

Clayton Lambert responded to the crisis with such care that he placed his usual strokes in cold storage after one early, meaty pull for four off Pollock and, in his own bizarre way, deliberately missed more balls around his off-stump than he actually played.

With Hooper unable to bat before No. 7, under the law, because he had not fielded in the South African innings, Lambert's partners following the loss of the first three wickets were Stuart Williams and Ridley Jacobs.

The pressure exerted by the disciplined South Africans was reflected in the pedestrian progress of normally free-scoring batsmen and the eventual method of a couple of dismissals.

Lambert needed 114 balls and nearly three hours over 33 before he pushed at a huge off-break from Pat Symcox minutes before lunch and got such a thick edge the alert wicket-keeper Mark Boucher had to dive to his left to catch it.

The restricted Hooper spent two hours and 90 balls over 34 and the left-handed Jacobs just under three hours and 126 balls for a resolute topscore of 42.

Once more, Williams provided decisive evidence of why, in spite of his obvious natural talent, his Test average languishes in the low 20s.

He had been in for three-quarters of an hour and had revealed the most exquisite extra-cover-driven boundary one ball before, simply to steer an ordinary delivery directly into second slip's lap the next. It was not an unusual lapse.

By lunch, Lambert was gone too and the West Indies, 82 for five, were deep in trouble.

For all but five minutes of the two hours between intervals, Jacobs and Hooper, with Wallace as his runner, deligently sought to repair the damage.

Even before lunch, Jacobs had shown an appreciation for the loose ball with an extraordinary pick-up off Donald that landed the ball six rows back in the seats at long-leg. Hooper followed by hoisting Symcox, from the opposite end, in the same general direction into the crowd over long-on.

Their stand was worth 68 and the refreshing prospect of tea was two overs away when they fell at the same total, 148, within six balls of each other.

Hooper was lbw to the bustling Jacques Kallis' sharp break-back and Jacobs undid his lengthy and admirable application with a moment of inexcusable rashness.

In the last over before the break he was unsettled by three successive appeals for lbw off Symcox and the resultant chat from bowler and wicket-keeper.

His concentration snapped, he flung the bat at the next ball and tamely lobbed a catch to mid-on.

That exposed the bowlers and, after McLean and Lewis added 22 in the 40 minutes after tea, the innings was wrapped up as the last three wickets tumbled in three balls to the delighted roars of nearly 20 000, by far the largest crowd of the match.

Two of them were to Pollock, the sixth South African to reach the 100-wicket standard, who immediately announced that his next goal was the 116 his fast bowler father, Peter, now chairman of selectors, took prior to South Africa's exclusion from the international game.

Before then, he is likely to be on a historic winning team.

Day 5: No Saving West Indies This Time

JOHANNESBURG - This time there was to be no miracle.

The Kensington Oval dramas of 1992 against the first-time South Africans and 1997 against the shell-shocked Indians, the 46-all out phenomenon that the Englishmen suffered at the Queen's Park Oval in 1995, and the many other past rescues carried out by the fast bowlers present provided the motivation for the West Indies. But the plain truth was their batsmen had left them with a mission near-impossible.

Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh, the veteran campaigners who had so consistently worked wonders for the common cause, again put heart and soul into their effort to salvage victory in a significant Test, the West Indies' first on South African territory.

But 164 runs were always going to be inadequate, even on a pitch of variable bounce.

After the predictable early alarms, in which their openers fell in successive overs from Ambrose and Walsh within the first 40 minutes, South Africa completed a triumph by four wickets five minutes before tea.

It not only gives them an immediate lead in the series, but erases the lingering memories of their Kensington capitulation in their only previous Test nearly seven years ago.

It took them almost 4-1/2 tense hours and 62.4 overs to achieve, but they would not be denied.

Under darkening skies, they and their jubilant 8 000 or so supporters at the ground were celebrating five minutes before tea when wicket-keeper Mark Boucher played Ambrose square on the off-side for the winning run.

Setting out on their mission from the start of a hot, sunny day, they needed nerves of steel and perfect judgement to overcome the genuine, well-established threat of Ambrose and Walsh.

Their potential problems materialised with the wickets of the openers with only 14 scored.

The left-handed Gary Kirsten, a 46-Test veteran and the first innings top-scorer, edged one from Ambrose that bounced awkwardly to wicket-keeper Ridley Jacobs in the ninth over, and the right-handed Adam Bacher, lunging forward to Walsh, inside edged a catch to short-leg in the tenth.

It was a double-blow they would have found difficult to handle in the early days of their return to Test cricket.

Here we go again, it seemed.

But captain Hansie Cronje, along with fast bowler Allan Donald the only survivor of the 1992 debacle, said afterwards that the time in the interim had toughened his team.

It was a claim verified by the intense, spell-binding battle that developed.

Ambrose and Walsh, as probingly accurate as ever, applied such early pressure that Walsh conceded a mere eight runs from his opening spell of six overs, Ambrose 14 from his ten, as Brian Lara set out his tactical stall with run-choking fields.

The test for the West Indies would come when Ambrose and Walsh had to be rested and Lara would have to turn to his untested bowlers, Rawl Lewis and Nixon McLean, and the handicapped Carl Hooper, still uncomfortable with a strained groin muscle.

It proved a turning point. Lewis bowled his leg-spin steadily but never threateningly after taking over from Walsh and, when Lara replaced Ambrose with Hooper's off-spin and then turned to McLean's pace, the relief was soon evident.

Hooper was hoisted for two fours over mid-wicket by Jacques Kallis and Daryll Cullinan and, still feeling the effects of his injury, took his leave after four overs.

McLean was introduced after 25 overs and Cullinan right away cut and pulled him for two boundaries. He was restricted to five overs and Lara had to return to his two senior bowlers earlier than he would have anticipated.

Not unexpectedly, neither was as direct as they had been at the start, Ambrose having trouble with no-balls.

With the match result as good as decided, Lara tried Lewis from round the wicket in an attempt to regain some control.

Kallis, at one-down, was the hub around whom the home team's effort revolved, holding things together for three hours, 50 minutes to be unbeaten on 57 when victory was achieved, his second half-century of a low-scoring match.

He shared successive, match-winning partnerships of 44 with Cullinan and 66 with Cronje, both of whom provided the necessary impetus to the effort..

``In Bridgetown, we were new to the game of Test cricket and we made mistakes,'' Cronje said afterwards.

``We weren't positive enough on that final day. Now, 50 Tests or so down the line, we're used to it.''

Coming in after the fall of the openers in successive overs, Cullinan seized on every scoring opportunity and rode whatever luck was going to score 35 off 64 balls.

He edged Walsh just wide of second slip when two, almost chopped Ambrose into his stumps when 10 and just managed to clear mid-off with a slog off Lewis when 16.

But his method initially lifted South Africa's burden until Stuart Williams miraculously plucked his fierce pull off McLean out of the air at mid-wicket, parrying the ball and then grabbing it right-handed as he tumbled to ground.

It was then 58 for three and needed the continuing positive influence of Cronje to counteract the well-spread field.

He would have been run out before he had scored had Shivnarine Chanderpaul's side-on throw from point hit the one stump at which he had to aim, and he was caught at silly mid-on off an Ambrose no-ball at 96 for three, when 17.

He finally went to a top-edged hook to fine-leg off the persevering Walsh for 31 with victory only 40 runs away.

The storm clouds that had broken around tea on each of the previous two days to end play were banking up, and Cronje later revealed that he had set his team a 4 p.m. deadline to complete the job.

As it was, the rain did not materialise and, even though Walsh had Jonty Rhodes caught behind and Ambrose's full toss was flicked by Shaun Pollock hard but straight to square-leg with scores level, Kallis remained steadfast until wicket-keeper Mark Boucher cut Ambrose square to formalise the result.

Now the West Indies have ten days to recoup before the second of the five Tests starts in Port Elizabeth on December 10. But it is not many times that teams come back to win a series after defeat first up.