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For two-and-three-quarter hours yesterday, two batsmen of contrasting ages, the same cricketing upbringing and similarly pleasing styles raised West Indian hopes of a stimulating victory in Queen's Park Oval's Golden Test.

While captain Carl Hooper, aged 34 and in his 82nd Test, and his fellow Guyanese Ramnaresh Sarwan, 20, and in his 10th, were together in a resolute, yet entertaining partnership of 92, the West Indies were still in with a definite chance over South Africa in the second Test of the Cable & Wireless Series.

It was what happened before they came together and after they were separated that doused the optimism of the 12 000 or so willing them on from the stands with their flags and their music. They comprised the biggest last-day crowd at the Oval for many years. The two disastrous periods resulted in defeat by 69 runs with another 20.5 overs remaining, giving South Africa a 1-0 lead with three Tests remaining.

The West Indies resumed at 32 for one and so required exactly 200 more to attain their winning total of 232.

They had amassed over 300 in each of their previous three innings in the series and Brian Lara was still to come on the ground where he has played his cricket since he was a boy.

Hopes raised

Expectations of another feat to follow Courtney Walsh's 500th wicket on the third day on the 50th Test at Queen's Park were not far- fetched.

As it turned out, four West Indian wickets fell within the first hour- and-a-quarter, the last three for one run, including Lara for his first duck before his devoted countrymen.

The foundations needed for a real challenge had crumbled under the first pressure and Hooper and his young compatriot were left with the job of rebuilding.

They managed it with a combination of patience, keen judgement and typical West Indian flair until Sarwan's inexperience and youthful exuberance led to his dismissal to an impetuous hook off Jacques Kallis in the penultimate over before tea.

The repair work he and his captain diligently had carried out proved to be of no avail as the South Africans, seizing their chance like the champion team they are, despatched the last four wickets after tea for 12 runs from 13.1 overs.

It meant that nine West Indian wickets had fallen for 35 runs either side of the stand between Hooper and Sarwan and the new captain was left stranded and distraught with 54 after three hours and 20 minutes of flawless batting. It was a disturbing throwback to England last summer and Australia more recently when such collapses were commonplace. What effect it will have on the remaining Tests, the third of which starts at Kensington Oval a week from today, only time will tell.

Hooper and his management team can only stress to their younger players that they have held their own in both Tests for all but yesterday's two critical sessions.

It was obvious that yesterday's early exchanges would set the pattern for the day and South Africa dominated them.

Allan Donald, their wily fast bowler, wasted little time on nightwatchman Dinanth Ramnarine, removing the left-hander in the fourth over to a stinging second slip catch by Kallis.

Another half-hour elapsed before Marlon Samuels, Chris Gayle and Lara were out within four overs and one run of each other, after which it required something extraordinary for a West Indies victory.

Samuels had two polished boundaries, a hook off Pollock and a sweet backfoot shot through the covers off Donald, before he attempted a repeat the second shot and sliced another catch to Kallis.

Next over

In the next over, the left-handed Gayle pushed tentatively at Pollock, round the wicket for the first time, and touched a catch to the keeper.

Quarter-hour later, Lara followed to Makhaya Ntini's first ball that pinned him in front of his stumps. Umpire Billy Doctrove agreed with a bellowed South African appeal - of which there were several - but the television replays showed the ball pitching several inches outside leg-stump.

Before he had scored, Sarwan missed a hook at Pollock and took a blow on the helmet but he and Hooper batted through to lunch at 86 for five.

On resumption, they mixed tight defence with silken strokes that defeated even the defensive field-placing. Hooper, playing as far forward as he could on a pitch of low bounce, eased drives straight, through mid-off and mid-on, went back to punch through the covers and hoisted Lance Klusener over mid-on for his only aerial stroke. All sped across the fast outfield to the boundary.

Little Sarwan's six fours lost little by comparison.

None was better than a cover-drive off Klusener, knee bent, that prompted the DJ in the Trini Posse Stand to blare out with Beckett's Small Pin Does Juk Hard.

The South Africans, sensing victory slipping from their grasp, gathered in a huddle to refocus for the final push at 135 for five quarter-hour to tea.

Soon, the pacy Kallis was pounding three short balls in an over at Sarwan. The batsman resisted the first, pulled the second down to mid- wicket and hooked the third behind the square-leg umpire where Nicky Boje, positioned for just such an eventuality, held the catch over his head.

In for three hours for 39, Sarwan was impeccable until his final indiscretion.

His wicket was all South Africa needed. They knew that the West Indies, with only three wickets in hand and even with Hooper still in, could not score the 89 they needed off 34 overs after tea.

No team had come close to that rate throughout the match.

The West Indies did not seem to appreciate the reality that victory was not beyond them and a draw should be their only consideration.

Ridley Jacobs twice scrambled leg-byes as if he were in the closing overs of a One-Day International and was duly run out by Herschelle Gibbs' direct hit of the bowlers' stumps.

Nixon McLean was twice caught behind off Kallis but only given out by umpire Darrel Hair the second time.

Merv Dillon followed lbw two balls later (this time a correct decision) and Walsh had a personally memorable match spoiled when he was last out, bowled off-stump by Pollock for his 43rd Test duck.

© The Barbados Nation