PORT ELIZABETH: Veteran fast bowler Courtney Walsh eased into the number three spot on the all-time list of wicket-takers as the West Indies missed a glorious opportunity to dominate the opening day of the second Test against South Africa at St. George's Park yesterday.
Bowling with a venom which belied his age, not to mention the wear and tear while bowling 22,428 deliveries in a long and distinguished career, the 36-year-old Jamaican bagged three wickets for 74 runs off 20 overs to take his tally to 385 - two better than England's Ian Botham, and in the process led the Windie's charge in their bid to win the Test match and level the series at 1-1.
At stumps on a day when the conditions were more English than South African, the home team was on 223 for eight with Pat Symcox on 30, Allan Donald on 27, and although it could have been better, the West Indians had every reason to be happy with their performance.
Blessed with ideal conditions, however, the West Indies should have totally dominated the day.
In such conditions, and with the fielders, especially wicketkeeper Ridley Jacobs and Floyd Reifer, who got in when Philo Wallace went down with the flu, supporting the bowlers, South Africa's innings should have been history long before bad light forced the players off the field with 26.2 overs still to be bowled.
Once again, however, the support bowlers, Mervyn Dillon, who bowled one magnificent delivery, and Nixon McLean, were only better than ordinary, and everything depended on Walsh, who set the stage with two early wickets, and his old and reliable ally Curtly Ambrose, who turned the screws with two wickets in the middle of South Africa's innings to finish with two for 28 off 17 top-class overs.
When captain Brian Lara got out of bed this morning and looked out on Port Elizabeth through the window of his 10th floor room at the Holiday Inn, he must have said to himself, ``please God, let me win the toss''.
Unlike the spotless, blue skies and the brilliant sunshine of the three previous days, it was dark and cold and there was not a spot of blue sky anywhere.
On top of that, when Lara got to the ground, he was greeted with a pitch so green that someone asked, ``where is the pitch?''.
Lara must have begged his God again, and when his counterpart, Hansie Cronje, flipped the coin, he called right, sent South Africa to bat, and Walsh handed the West Indies the start they wanted in their effort to put the pressure on South Africa.
Bowling from the north, Walsh, in his second over, sent the West Indies' fielders jumping about in happiness when he bowled Herschelle Gibbs for two at six for one - the batsman, who looks more white than coloured, going forward and bowled off bat, pad and glove as the ball trickled on to the stumps.
After a brief interlude during which Peter Kirsten and Jacques Kallis enjoyed themselves against some short-pitched bowling, Walsh struck again when he had the left-handed Kirsten brilliantly caught down the legside by Jacob's for 29 at 52 for two.
That was the wicket which took Walsh past Botham. It was also the one which opened the door as the West Indies charged in and snatched four wickets for 37 runs to leave South Africa struggling on 89 for five.
Danger man Daryll Cullinan was bowled leg stump for four at 67 for three by a super yorker from Dillon; four deliveries later, Kallis hooked at Walsh, gloved a catch to Carl Hooper at second slip and went away for 29 at 67 for four and when Jonty Rhodes, on 17 and paddling across his stumps to Ambrose, edged to Hooper at second slip, the Windies were well on top.
However, South Africa, known for their grit and determination, refused to surrender and with Cronje leading from the front, battled back through three fine partnerships.
The first was between Cronje and Shaun Pollock who shared 49 for the sixth wicket before Pollock was pushed on to the backfoot by a nasty kicker from Ambrose and Stuart Williams at third slip accepted the edged catch to make it 138 for six.
The second, after Cronje was brilliantly run out for 21 at 142 for seven by Reifer who raced from cover to extra-cover and hit the stumps at the bowler's end, was between Mark Boucher and Symcox who posted 33 for the eighth wicket before Boucher - the ball after hooking the pacer for two boundaries - failed to get on top of a rising delivery from McLean and steered a catch to Hooper at second slip to make it 175 for eight.
At that stage, the West Indies were again on top.
Once again, however, South Africa stood firm with Symcox - the tail-ender with a century beside his name and Donald, with a top score of 33, flaying an attack which attempted to blast them out with short-pitched deliveries and posting an unbroken ninth-wicket partnership of 48 in 11 overs.
Day 3: Windies humiliated
PORT ELIZABETH - The West Indies hopes of winning the five Test series against South Africa were all but shattered at St. Georges Park yesterday when they crashed to an embarrassing 178-run defeat on the third day of the second Test.
Set a victory target of 320 runs in brilliant sunshine and on a pitch which although not a feather bed was not difficult, the West Indies batsmen, as was the case in the first innings when they were ripped apart in 170 minutes and 37.3 overs, batted irresponsibly and were blown away in 179 minutes and 39.2 overs.
Allan Donald preened himself with figures of 5-49 off 14.2 overs, man of the match Shaun Pollock claimed 2-46 off 13 and Jacques Kallis had 1-17 off six.
In the madness which characterised the West Indies' performance, the other two wickets were handed to South Africa when Shivnarine Chanderpaul left Carl Hooper stranded in mid-pitch and when Nixon McLean ran himself out going for a second, unnecessary run.
``This is not the end of the world,'' said captain Brian Lara minutes after the West Indies demise.
``We're not going to embarrass ourselves any further,'' Lara said.
``Clive Lloyd went through a 5-1 series defeat to Australia and came back to produce one of the best teams in the world. We've got to dig deep with the resources we've got and see how best we can come back.
``We represent five million people and there are so many people around the world who support the West Indies. We've got to put in a much bigger effort for them.''
Lara said his team was not playing to its full potential.
``If you're giving 100 per cent and you get beaten by the better team you can hold your head up high,'' Lara said. ``But we're not giving 100 per cent, and they're not taking five days to beat us - they're taking 2-1/2.''
``It is not over. There are still three Test matches to come, and hopefully, we will do better in those.''
The West Indies will have to do more than hope, however. As the great one, a sad and disappointed Sir Garfield Sobers said after the eclipse, ``the batsmen have to bat - they have to understand what responsibility means and bat accordingly.''
Yesterday they batted as if they did not understand the word - either that, or they did not care.
On a pitch which forced Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh to pull out all the stops in a splendid effort to keep their team in the hunt, the West Indies batsmen, all of them, fell like nine-pins and died without even putting up a fight against a team which, in the words of their own captain when they arrived in South Africa after the standoff in London, ``we are here to win, not only for ourselves, but also for the black people of South Africa''.
The batsmen, including captain and world record holder Lara who surprisingly turned up at number five, did not bat as if they wanted to beat anyone.
With Stuart Williams suffering from flu and with Chanderpaul as his makeshift partner, Clayton Lambert committed the first sin when, like a man brushing a fly off his brow, he swatted at a short pitch delivery from a furious Donald, edge a dolly catch to wicketkeeper Mark Boucher, and walked away for two at 3-1 in the third over.
For a brief period, with Chanderpaul driving Donald through the covers, number three Ridley Jacobs driving Pollock to the long-on boundary, and Jacobs welcoming Kallis with a lovely drive to the cover boundary, there was hope.
After driving the first delivery from Kallis off the front foot, however, the left-handed Jacobs went back to the second, was leg before wicket for 22 at 40-2, and that was the end of the celebration as the West Indies lost six wickets for 37 runs in 15 overs and 66 agonising minutes.
It appeared as if the West Indies, the once mighty world champion, were destined to fall for their lowest total since 1987 when New Zealand levelled them for 100 in Christchurch.
However, Lara decided to go down in style and played some handsome strokes, including a hook for six off Donald, and scored 39 with one six and six fours before he mistimed a pull off Donald and was caught on mid-on by Gary Kirsten at 132-8.
For Ambrose and Walsh, it must have been a huge disappointment after their early morning bid to leave their batsmen with a chance.
Opening the bowling and going unchanged for 18.5 overs in 99 minutes, the veterans picked up the home team's last five wickets while conceding only 52 runs, with Ambrose, who took four wickets for 28 runs in his nine overs, finishing with 6-51 off 19 overs to take his tally to 349 and his bag of five wickets in an innings to 21 - one behind Malcolm Marshall's West Indies record of 22.