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Another late order collapse, staggering even by their own recent standards, has once more left the West Indies playing for time in the fourth Test at the Antigua Recreational Ground.

Dinanath Ramnarine was again the central character in the campaign but his tactics this time were completely above board and skilfully executed. They have at least earned the West Indies a stay of execution.

After they were bowled out for 140 within the first hour of the third day to concede a lead of 107 and South Africa galloped to 50 for one off 15 overs by lunch, Carl Hooper switched to a policy of pure containment.

The failure of the batsmen meant the West Indies had little chance of getting back into contention on a bare, dry pitch responding to spin and of increasingly variable bounce.

Their last four wickets could only squeeze out another 10 runs off 13.1 overs in the morning to add to the precarious overnight 130 for six. Of those, four were from Courtney Walsh's delicate leg-glance off Shaun Pollock.

It meant the last six wickets had contributed a measly 14 from 15.5 overs and Hooper, like every changed captain in the past five years, was left with few options in a desperate situation.

They were to try to bowl South Africa out cheaply to open the possibility of an unlikely victory or to make them stretch their second innings so far into the fourth day there would still be the chance, slim as it would be, to hang on for a draw.

He chose the latter course, especially after he lost one of his two fast bowlers, Merv Dillon, who gave up after three balls because of a strained right thumb.

It worked to such an extent that the game came to a virtual standstill.

South Africa laboured to 122 for three off 76 overs by close and, although they remain strongly placed to extend their 1-0 lead in the series and clinch the Sir Viv Richards Trophy, the match has not progressed as quickly as they would have hoped.

They were pinned down mainly by Ramnarine in a lengthy spell from the Factory Road end in which he pitched his leg-breaks from round the wicket into the rough outside the right-handers leg-stump.

Only Daryll Cullinan, late in the day, was inclined to counter-attack. Before he pulled and cut three long-hops for fours in consecutive overs when Ramnarine was tiring, the leg-spinner sent down 23 consecutive overs, conceding only six runs from the bat, three from a wide that eluded the keeper and a no-ball.

He never looked for a wicket but got one all the same, a sharp, bouncing leg-break that seemed to lob to slip off Herschelle Gibbs' shoulder, rather than glove.

That such a naturally aggressive batsmen took 195 balls to score 45 revealed the South Africans' reluctance to be lured into any trap.

In a second-wicket partnership of 78, occupying 47overs and three hours, 20 minutes, Gibbs and Neil McKenzie countered far more with pad than bat.

McKenzie, promoted to No 3 which Jaques Kallis usually occupies, remained unbeaten on 44 at close after more than four-and-a-half hours of diligent defence.

The two came together when the tireless Walsh rolled back the years to dispatch the left-handed Gary Kirsten with a snarling lifter that he could only parry to the diving Ramnaresh Sarwan at short-leg.

Only the occasional leg-cutter from Walsh beat the bat after that but the two made no attempt to get after Ramnarine, prepared to bide their time because they knew it was on their side.

When Gibbs fell, South Africa did make an attempt to up the tempo, sending the left-handed Nicky Boje to join the right-handed McKenzie. The ploy lasted two balls, Boje edging his drive at Hooper's off-spin to slip.

The two wickets lifted the spirits of a good Sunday crowd but made little difference to the overall picture. Whatever happens today, the West Indies know they have to bat as they have seldom batted of late to save the match, far less win it.

Their reckless batting of the third day had put them in a bind and they could not escape.

Their remaining four wickets capitulated meekly against the accurate, contrasting bowling of Shaun Pollock's pace and Lance Klusener's slow- medium off-cutters.

Hopes of a recovery rested on Hooper and Ridley Jacobs, their leading scorers in the series. But once Hooper was caught at short-leg off bat-and-pad off Klusener after adding only one from 18 balls, the resistance ended.

While the usually aggressive Jacobs spent 37 balls adding two to his overnight single, the last three wickets fell at the opposite end.

Neil McGarrell was lbw to Klusener for a debut duck.

Ramnarine was run out on McKenzie's direct throw as Jacobs tried to keep the strike and Walsh was lbw after his pretty boundary.

Only England, 127 all out three years ago, had been bowled out cheaper in an Antigua Test. They lost and the West Indies are likely to lose as well.

© The Barbados Nation