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A little old lady last night suggested that Cable & Wireless extend its offer of voluntary severance packages beyond its employees.

The option should also be given to the international cricket team the company sponsors, she insisted.

It was a comment made in the aftermath of yet another disconcerting defeat by the West Indies, their third in succession that left another packed Queen's Park Stadium in an understandable state of despondency.

South Africa, once more vastly superior in every facet of the game, won the fourth Cable & Wireless One-Day International by eight wickets with 23 balls, to complete a disastrous weekend for the West Indies and take a 3-1 lead ahead of the fifth match in Barbados on Wednesday.

Clearly, we've had two poor days. We didn't bowl yesterday (Saturday) and today (yesterday) we didn't bat well, West Indies captain Carl Hooper said afterwards.

West Indies managed to raise a competitive, if not satisfactory total of exactly 200 after there was the potential of another embarrassment when they struggled through the first 20 overs.

When they took to the field, however, it was the same old problem of trying to contain the rampaging South Africans in the first 15 overs. But before anyone's lunch could be fully digested, the scoreboard was already rapidly ticking over.

Of the 20 boundaries South Africa struck, nine came in the first 10 overs from Cameron Cuffy and Nixon McLean.

It meant that the first 50 was posted in 56 balls and when the 20 overs were completed South Africa were already half-way to their target which was eventually reached from the first ball of the 47th over with only two wickets lost.

By 3 p.m., everyone was sure South Africa would win their 13th One-Day International in their last 15 matches, but West Indians in the stands tried to make the afternoon an enjoyable one by participating in an extended Mexican Wave and the continuos cacophony of noises from drums, whistles, horns and triangles.

When you lose a game you're disappointed, Hooper said.

We didn't want to go two games behind. We have put ourselves in a position where we've got to win three games to win the One-Day competition, which is a big ask.

We've got to stay positive and keep preparing ourselves well for these games.

The way in which the first five West Indian batsmen found ways to get themselves out triggered several unprintable words from the stands.

Had it not been for Marlon Samuels' 65, Hooper's 46 and Brian Lara's brief onslaught against Allan Donald, there would have been many more four-letter words.

In chronological order, Ricardo Powell, Chris Gayle, Lara and Hooper gifted their wickets from strokes that they will quickly want to forget. Mind you, the first two were prised out by typically excellent running catches by the sure-handed South Africans.

Powell, opening the batting in the absence of Wavell Hinds and Leon Garrick, opted to launch into Justin Kemp's slower ball and paid the price with a skied catch that Mahkaya Ntini hauled in.

Gayle was even more culpable than his fellow Jamaican. Seemingly not satisfied with his six over long-off off Kemp, he inexplicably charged down the pitch two balls later in another attempt to hoist the ball out of the stadium.

Once he realised that Jonty Rhodes was the fielder sprinting to try to make the match, he knew he was good as gone.

Shivnarine Chanderpaul was the only one in the top five who did not fall to an entirely irresponsible stroke, but there was a hint of carelessness in the way he sliced a catch to gully off Ntini.

By then Lara had greeted Donald with three scorching boundaries from the fast bowler's first three balls he delivered.

The first of them, a ferocious pull, made the 32-year-old left-hander the second West Indian to pass 7000 runs in One-Day Internationals and the 12th all told.

Donald, however, enjoyed the final laugh. Like Gayle, Lara charged down the track, but edged a catch to the keeper to become the first of four wickets for Donald.

When Lara departed, the West Indies were struggling at 61 for four after 21 overs, the pressure having been caused by Shaun Pollock's tight opening spell for six overs in which he conceded three runs and Ntini's seven overs for 13 after he came on to replace Kemp.

Samuels and Hooper tried their best to revive the desperate situation with a fifth-wicket partnership of 67 in 15.2 overs, but just when the West Indies captain was looking dangerous and was four shy of a half- century, he fell to a catch at deep square-leg off Donald.

Samuels, who counted eight fours, mainly from drives between extra- cover and mid-on, at least gave the West Indies hope of competitive total before he was eighth out with the score on 185.

The tail-enders, with some luck, managed to get the West Indies to a landmark that was greeted with the type of celebrations that would have suggested the total was 400.

South Africa went about their business in their usual way with Herschelle Gibbs again successfully charging down the pitch to the faster stuff of Cuffy and McLean.

Gibbs raced to 30 off 27 balls before hitting a catch to cover off a ball of no real merit. The bowler was Kerry Jeremy, who in spite of four generally tidy overs, was never given the ball again.

Gary Kirsten completed his second half-century in successive days with an innings of 72, but South Africa probably took more satisfaction from Boeta Dippenaar's unbeaten 62.

The 23-year-old Dippenaar took the place of the injured Jacques Kallis at No 3 and it was the first time in the entire tour that he was given a chance to play a significant innings in an international match since arriving in the Caribbean two months ago.

For the second straight day, Hooper's off-breaks proved economical, but again the support was lacking.

© The Barbados Nation