West Indies Break Losing Spell
A win, a win at last
Tony Cozier
24-Apr-2001
A win, a win at last!
And not just an ordinary win but one against opponents presently rated
second only to Australia, a win hard-fought and comprehensive, a win
achieved through a team effort in which the bit players contributed
even more than the established stars.
By defeating South Africa by 130 runs in the fifth and final Test at
Sabina Park yesterday, after the collapse of the last six wickets for
46 in 15 overs after lunch, the West Indies ended a sequence of 13
Tests and almost a year without a victory.
In contrast, it was South Africa's first loss in the same number of
Tests.
For the West Indies, there have been ten losses and a distressing
litany of chaos and controversy in that time. It makes a refreshing
change to be able to report something positive.
It could not save a series already secured by South Africa through
victories at Queen's Park Oval and the ARG, and it was Shaun Pollock,
not Carl Hooper, who stepped forward to collect the impressive new Viv
Richards Trophy at the end. But there was justified satisfaction for
Hooper's first win as captain and for his players.
The result was an appropriate parting gift for the great Courtney
Walsh who ended his celebrated career as he began it 17 years and 132
Tests earlier against Australia at Perth, with a West Indies triumph.
Inevitably, he was in the thick of things at the end, claiming two of
the last three wickets with the second new ball to the delight of the
small Sabina Park crowd that, only a year ago, was hailing him as he
surpassed Kapil Dev as Test cricket's leading wicket-taker.
Now he waved them goodbye for the last time from the middle and left
the field to heartfelt hugs from West Indians and South Africans
alike.
As significantly, the win was a boost for the collective confidence of
the generation to follow.
They will depart for their next Test series, in Zimbabwe in July,
unquestionably weakened by the loss of Test cricket's highest wickettaker who was, once more, their most successful bowler in the series.
But they are now assured they have the capacity to compete with the
best, a status not evident after their thrashings in England last
summer and in Australia subsequently.
For a long time yesterday it seemed as if the self-doubt that is the
upshot of failure was again hindering the West Indies.
It had often affected them during the series and, as Walsh and Merv
Dillon trundled away ineffectively to mainly defensive field placings,
South Africa's overnight pair Neil McKenzie and Jacques Kallis solidly
settled.
Cameron Cuffy had a bowl but did nothing to compensate for his earlier
clumsy fielding. Dinanath Ramnarine took over from Dillon and, after
four overs, Hooper replaced Cuffy.
The closest the West Indies came to separating the pair was on an lbw
appeal from Hooper against Kallis an hour and ten minutes into the
day.
Lunch was 20 minutes away when the breakthrough finally came.
McKenzie, never entirely sure against Ramnarine, prodded forward to
the leg-break, failed to cover it sufficently and Leon Garrick snapped
up the catch inches from the ground at silly point.
McKenzie had defied the West Indies for four hours, 20 minutes for his
51, yet South Africa still seemed on course for safety at 209 for four
at lunch, with Kallis entrenched with 51.
Ramnarine changed that within four balls of resumption.
Kallis, as always, had been keen to get after him before lunch, three
times stepping down to lift him to the extra-cover boundary.
Second ball into the second session, he was again on the attack,
pulling. The ball was too close to him for the shot and he chopped it
into off-stump off the inside-edge, and the main stumbling block was
gone.
Two balls later, Mark Boucher, who has had a miserable tour with bat
and gloves, reached forward to a leg-break and snicked to wicketkeeper Ridley Jacobs.
These were match-winning blows and South Africa's resistance crumbled.
Once Lance Klusener and Pollock batted together for half-hour after
Ramnarine's double-strike, Hooper handed Walsh and Dillon the second
new ball three-quarters of an hour into the final session.
The outcome was still not certain, for the left-handed Klusener was
beginning to find the middle of the bat for the first time in the
series with blows for which he is renowned and Pollock's batting
credentials were obvious in a series average of over 100.
This time, Pollock had nothing left. Dillon removed him to a catch to
Jacobs off a wild cut shot with his second delivery and, to universal
delight, Walsh claimed Justin Kemp first ball to a clear-cut lbw
decision.
Next ball, Walsh's fellow Jamaican Marlon Samuels, 18 years his
junior, embarrassed himself and his former watching classmates at
Kingston College, by dropping Allan Donald at cover.
It prolonged Walsh's next wicket for a few minutes before he knocked
out Donald's middle stump, his 519th and, as it turned out, last Test
victim.
It would have been fitting for Walsh to formalise the victory with a
wicket with his last ball in Test cricket. But West Indian
sentimentality did not extend that far. They have had enough
disappointments of late to care only about finishing off the match.
It came 50 minutes before tea when last man Paul Adams skied a catch
off Dillon that Samuels, pedalling back from cover, this time caught.
Then, and only then, could the celebrations begin.