DURBAN - The third Test of the five-match series between the West Indies and South Africa gets underway at Kingsmead on Saturday with the two teams gunning for victory but for different reasons.
For the West Indies, on their knees and facing embarrassment, it is time to get up and fight - not only to stay in the hunt, but also to defend the integrity of West Indies cricket and to win back friends. For South Africa, two up after two, it is time for the kill.
At the start of a tour, which was billed as the mother of all tours, the expectation was for a bruising contest watched by bumper crowds. After two matches, however, it is nothing but a one-sided affair watched by disappointingly small gatherings.
In the opinion of many, the people who were expected to turn up in large numbers to watch the battle of two teams which, up to 1992, were kept apart because of Apartheid, have stayed away for two reasons - as a protest against what they still see as an all-white home team and because of the poor performance of the visitors.
``This tour is looking like a financial disaster,'' said Dr. Ali Bacher, managing director of the United Cricket Board of South Africa, as he looked around the almost empty stands during the second day's play of the second Test at St. George's Park. ``Our only hope now is Durban and Cape Town - and, of course, a West Indies' fight back.''
The West Indies did not fight back, they lost by 178 runs inside three days and 72 hours before one of the umpires calls play in a city which, like Cape Town, usually packs in the crowd for its holiday Test match, only 4,000 tickets have been sold. Normally, the figure is closer to 30,000 and, as Bacher prepares to fly out of his hometown, Johannesburg, he must be a worried man.
The Windies, however, can fight back - especially as the internal problems which affected its younger members and fringe players and weakened a team already dependent on a few stars appear to be behind them.
Although team spirit is important, to win will call for more than morale and the West Indies batting stars, captain Brian Lara, Carl Hooper and Shivnarine Chanderpaul, will have to step up and perform as the bowling stars - Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh - have been doing.
The former world champions will also need good performances from their opening batsmen, from their man at number six and from their two support bowlers.
Fortunately for them, Philo Wallace, according to coach Malcolm Marshall, will be back to partner Clayton Lambert, and the hope in the camp is that this time around they will come up with a good stand and set the stage for Lara and company.
The number six position remains a problem and although teenager Darren Ganga should be given an opportunity, it is possible that the SOS will go out to the bold and brave Junior Murray who scored 46 not out in the opening spot in the limited-overs match against the Kwazulu Natal Invitational XI, and who, despite a couple of chances, attacked the South African ``A'' team bowlers with confidence in the four-day encounter and scored 45 in a face-saving sixth-wicket partnership of 108 with Chanderpaul in the first innings.
The other problem is the support for Ambrose and Walsh and it appears that the job will go to Nixon McLean - the team's fastest bowler, and to Franklyn Rose who forced words of praise from Lara following his performance against the Natal XI and from Marshall for his effort against South Africa ``A''.
The West Indies, however, would be well advised to include Rawl Lewis.
The right-arm legspinner could, as Mushtaq Ahmed did on the same pitch last season when he bowled Pakistan to victory with six for 78, expose South Africa's weakness to spin and destroy them on a pitch which, although he has said it will assist pace as it did last season when Allan Donald (five for 79), Shoaib Akhtar (five for 43) and Shaun Pollock (six for 50) preened themselves in the first three innings, curator Phil Russell predicts will wear and tear.
In contrast to the West Indies who must win to keep alive their hopes of winning the series, South Africa, who are expected to go in with an unchanged team, have three more chances to win the series.
The Proteas (not the Springboks as they were known in the old South Africa) do not, however, want to linger - not only because they remember a few months ago when they led England and lost the last two matches and the series, but also because they fear that Lara may explode and win the series for the West Indies - as Don Bradman did against England in 1936-37 when, with his team down by two after two, he powered Australia to victory with scores of 270 at Melbourne, 212 at Adelaide, and 169 back at Melbourne.
``Do not ease up. Take no chances. Go for the kill. Do it now,'' is the warning to South Africa from former captain Kepler Wessels. And captain Hansie Cronje has said that is what he and his men intend to do.
The West Indies have to do it now and against a team short of quality batsmen, they can - providing they are united in the cause. This is their last chance - not only to save the tour but to polish their tarnished reputation.