The West Indies once more carried their loyal and long-suffering
supporters through the whole range of emotions on the final day of the
third Test yesterday before finally having to resort to demeaning
methods to save the match.
Seven wickets were down, 23 minutes left on the clock, only the
fragile bowlers remained between South Africa and victory and the 5000
or so in the stands were willing Dinanath Ramnarine and Merv Dillon to
hold on.
Suddenly and apparently, Ramnarine, who had earlier taken five wickets
in South Africa's second innings, developed leg cramp or some
hamstring problem.
After making his discomfort clearly obvious, he gained the permission
of umpires Steve Bucknor and Darrell Hair to summon physiotherapist
Ronald Rogers onto the ground for medical attention that lasted almost
five minutes. Dillon took the chance to change his boots. When
Ramnarine was suitably treated and play resumed, he continued to
dilly-dally. Several times the experienced Bucknor urged him to move
on and, eventually, issued him an official warning for time-wasting.
When he did face up, Ramnarine comfortably held out for 14 balls and
Dillon 12 from the menacing left-arm spin of Nicky Boje and the
medium-pace of Lance Klusener before South African captain Shaun
Pollock abandoned his attempt at victory with only two balls left.
The reactions to the finale were understandably mixed.
On the face of it, the South Africans took it in good spirits. They,
and others, might have wasted time themselves in a similar plight. But
they would have been disappointed not to stretch their lead in the
series to 2-0.
For West Indians with cricket close to their hearts, there was obvious
relief at the draw but unease too that all of the fight their team had
shown throughout an engrossing match should have come to such an
ignominious end.
For the first hour, as the West Indian phenomenon of two spinners in
tandem reduced South Africa to 97 for six in their second innings and
an overall lead of 164, Kensington was smiling with optimistic
thoughts of a remarkable victory.
South Africa were already three down for 52 at the start. By the first
drinks break, Jacques Kallis had fallen to a short-leg catch prodding
at Carl Hooper's off-break and Ramnarine had taken care of the lefthanded Klusener, driving high to midoff, and wicket-keeper Mark
Boucher who snicked a classic leg-break into Ridley Jacobs' gloves.
Over the next hour and 40 minutes, while the century-makers of the
first innings, Darryl Cullinan and Pollock, made the match safe for
South Africa, West Indian hope turned to resignation and
disappointment.
It took the second new ball to separate the pair but, by then, the
slim West Indian chances had evaporated.
Pollock edged his drive off Courtney Walsh to be snapped up by Hooper
at second slip after playing solidly but the captain waited until
Ramnarine accounted for Cullinan and Alan Donald with successive balls
before he declared.
The classy Cullinan, with a couple of sixes and eight fours in 82, was
closing in on his second hundred of the match, and third of the
series, when Ramnarine removed him for the fourth time in, six
innings. His crossbatted slog took the under-edge on its way to slip.
Ramnarine seemed to have had Cullinan on 49 to a wicket-keeper's catch
but umpire Darrell Hair ruled that the leg-break had missed the bat.
When Ramnarine perplexed Donald first ball with a perfect googly,
Pollock declared with nine wickets down.
The understandable feeling around the ground was that it provided the
West Indies batsmen with two hours, 25 minutes of valuable match
practice.
As Chris Gayle unleashed a volley of thumping boundaries, 11 of them
in 48, the spectators prepared themselves for an entertaining climax
to proceedings or, more to the point, those somehow immune to the
unpredictably of West Indies cricket in recent years.
Once Hinds was Boje's first wicket, the innings folded with the haste
that was so familiar in England and Australia in the two previous
series but had seemingly been dispelled. Now seven wickets fell for 48
runs in 25.5 overs.
The inexperience of the four young batsmen was evident in the
collapse. Hinds lifted Boje over midwicket one ball and, driving at
the next, edged to slip.
Marlon Samuels also went to a slip catch, ondriving against the turn,
while Gayle was outfoxed by Kallis.
The bustling all-rounder kept feeding the young left-hander on his
strong off-side where he hit ten of his 11 boundaries. He then went
round the wicket to find the edge of another extravagant drive.
Ramnaresh Sarwan replaced him, but overcaution was his undoing as he
raised his bat to let one from Kallis hit off-stump, hard.
By now, the West Indies were 64 for four and their fate appeared to
depend heavily on Brian Lara and Hooper.
When Boje dismissed the defending Hooper to a keeper's catch with 55
minutes remaining on the clock and first innings century-maker Ridley
Jacobs 25 minutes later to one of the cluster of fielders around the
bat, only Lara remained of the capable batsmen.
South African joy, on the field and in the dressing room, was
unrestrained when Klusener went under the champion left-hander's bat
with a yorker.
It gave them another 23 minutes to try to complete the job. But they
only got in five more overs as Ramnarine and Dillon, with varying
methods, kept them at bay and West Indians could stop chewing their
nails and checking their heartbeats.