West Indies strike back
Events in Calcutta and Colombo over the past few days have confirmed the well-worn maxim that cricket is a funny game
Tony Cozier
18-Mar-2001
Events in Calcutta and Colombo over the past few days have confirmed
the well-worn maxim that cricket is a funny game.
The opening day of what has been officially titled The Golden Test,
the 50th at the Queen's Park Oval, added further credence to the
adage.
The second Test between the West Indies and South Africa may not
repeat the transformation that brought India their remarkable victory
over Australia on Thursday or the low-scoring tension of England's
triumph over Sri Lanka yesterday. But there were enough peculiarities
on the opening day to hint at another Queen's Park humdinger.
In a nutshell, South Africa, with eight Test century-makers in their
team, including captain Shaun Pollock at No.9, faltered from a
position of mid-afternoon strength to be all out for an unsatisfactory
286.
To the raucous, joyful delight of a crowd estimated at 18 000, they
lost their last six wickets for 65, their last five for 30. The
miserable ending to the day extended to the only over they had, Alan
Donald spraying two wides to get the West Indies underway.
Several factors compounded the South Africans' demise.
Their openers, Herschelle Gibbs and Gary Kirsten, survived to lunch
after the most difficult part of the day when the West Indies fast
bowlers failed to utilise the movement and bounce offered by the
residue preparation moisture in the pitch.
They were removed within ten minutes of resumption. Kirsten fended
Nixon McLean's lifter to second slip in the second over, Herschelle
Gibbs became Courtney Walsh's 497th Test wicket, diverting a sharp
off-cutter into his off-stump and South African were left to regroup.
Daryll Cullinan, who would pass his 13th Test century in his 67th
Test, and Jacques Kallis chose to do that with a calculated assault
that brought them 99 runs at a run-a-minute clip in which ineffective
bowling and ragged fielding were accomplices.
South Africa were steaming along towards a formidable position when
they were unexpectedly checked.
The change was triggered first by Wavell Hinds, a batsman who had
never been asked to bowl in Test cricket but who ended the threatening
partnership with his third ball, and later by Dinanath Ramnarine, the
leg-spinner, who had been earlier hammered out of the attack.
Hinds was summoned by captain Carl Hooper 20 minutes to tea when
Cullinan and Kallis appeared not only immovable but uncontainable.
A right-arm medium-pacer whose bowling needs to be encouraged in a
team short of his type, Hinds removed the ominous Jacques for 53, made
off 80 balls with two sixes and seven fours. The tall Jamaican claimed
a slick return catch low enough to influence the batsman into waiting
for confirmation from the TV replay. It was a crucial intervention.
His purpose achieved, he was immediately removed by the shrewd Hooper
but returned into the last session to account for wicket-keeper Mark
Boucher to a soft flick, low to midwicket.
Between those wickets, Walsh moved to within two of the magical 500
Test wickets. He found the bottom edge of the uncertain Neil
Mckenzie's bat and Chris Gayle swooped low to his right to claim a
two-handed catch.
It was now time for Ramnarine to have another go. The leg-spinner, in
his first Test before his home crowd, had been the main target of the
barrage by Kallis and Cullinan. He had created problems for some of
the top-order batsmen in the first Test at Bourda and the obvious plan
targeted him for special attention.
Twice in his second over after lunch, Kallis stepped down to hoist him
down the ground and over the ropes. He pummelled him for two more
fours, as did Cullinan, and Hooper had no option to shield him from
further pressure.
The situation had changed significantly since then but the South
Africans did not change their strategy against the leg-spinner. It
would bring their downfall.
Outstanding catch The left-handed Klusener thumped three
boundaries off Hinds before he was beaten by Ramnarine's sharp,
bouncing googly that he edged to Ridley Jacobs who took an outstanding
catch.
Nicky Boje, also left-handed, also mistook a googly for a leg-break
and, aiming his swing to midwicket, skied the ball halfway down the
pitch for Jacobs to gather another catch.
Cullinan now found himself with Pollock and Nos. 10 and 11. He had
pull-swept Ramnarine for the last two of his 14 fours but the shot
brought his downfall, out for 103 after three-and-a-half hours. Merv
Dillon gathered in the topedged skier at midwicket.
McLean rounded off the innings and a satsifactory day for the West
Indies by disposing Alan Donald and Makaya Ntini.
Before the start of the historic Test, two West Indian greats of
different generations unveiled new boards marking the finest
achievements at Queen's Park.
Sir Everton Weekes' board listed the 83 century-makers in the previous
49 Tests. Curtly Ambrose's carried the names of those who have taken
five or more wickets in an innings here.
Ambrose would surely have enjoyed the morning's conditions more than
Weekes, but the hot sunshine gradually sapped the life from the
surface.
The West Indies batsmen should enjoy today.