LARA GOES, BUT TEST STILL TOO CLOSE TO CALL

Otherwise it was another attritional two hours of play in which both sides seemed content to wait for the other to make a move as the West Indies limped to 171-3 from their overnight 50-0, a lead of 143.

Lara, having survived a sharp chance to Neil McKenzie at short leg off Nicky Boje before he had scored, reached the 40s for the second time in the match before once again becoming frustrated as South Africa's run-saving tactics and falling into an efficient, if rather obvious trap.

The ball has not come on to the bat throughout the match and driving has been fraught with danger from the first over. Shaun Pollock relied on Makhaya Ntini's ability to bowl a fiercely tight spell from one end while Lance Klusener tied up the other with his medium paced off-cutters and suddenly Lara could not buy a run.

With slips deemed irrelevant on a pitch with the bounce of an old piece of toast, Pollock had spare fielders and was able to experiment, not that placing himself at short extra cover required much imagination from the South African captain.

Ntini, however, still had to get Lara to drive and he did so with a slightly slower ball that the batsman attempted to hammer through the covers but spliced straight to the fielder. Lara's 45 required 82 balls and contained five fours. South Africa may have enjoyed dismissing the mercurial master for 47 and 45 in the Test, but they are aware that his form looks ominous. And the second Test is at his home ground in Trinidad.

Marlon Samuels, meanwhile, seems intent on playing himself out of form. The 20-year-old right hander has scratched and scurried through 165 balls so far for his 37 not out while Ramnaresh Sarwan, who looked hopelessly out of form in the first innings, looked more positive in making an unbeaten 13 from 26 balls this time around.

WEST INDIES GO SLOW ON FOURTH MORNING

South Africa's tortuous field settings led to asphyxiation among the West Indies batsmen who may yet rue their lack of intent or aggression. A clatter of wickets after lunch would leave them desperately vulnerable, although the schizophrenic Bourda pitch seems to have gone into remission once again and is playing benignly.

Wavell Hinds became the first of two wickets in the session when Allan Donald teased him into driving at a wide half-volley that lacked any pace at all.

Wicketkeeper Mark Boucher has been standing far closer to the stumps than is normal in order to counter the lack of bounce in the match strip and that enabled him to clutch the faintest of edges before it reached the ground.

Chris Gayle's flashing, savage batting of the third evening rapidly (or should that be slowly?) became a distant memory as the tourists packed the off side field and gave him nothing to work off his legs. Having reached 26 overnight from 48 balls, the Jamaican left-hander required 64 more balls for 16 runs before perishing to left-arm spinner Nicky Boje.

Sadly, it looked to be another ordinary decision from umpire John Hampshire who took an age to respond to the bowler's insistence for a catch by Boucher who, incidently, appealed both belatedly and half-heartedly.

South Africa might have enjoyed a brilliant session rather than a fair one had a sharp chance been accepted at short leg before Brian Lara had scored a run but the ball was played off the full face of the bat and Neil McKenzie's instinctive lunge served only to knock it away.

Lara then immediately settled with a clipped boundary off Boje while Marlon Samuels was torpor personified with a featureless 10 not out from 80 deliveries.

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Date-stamped : 12 Mar2001 - 22:29