A relentless hunt that wore WI down

Futile as it is to compare this season's harvest to the last, we still do it. As South Africa built up to and then became the No.1 ranked Test side in the world, their pace pack was likened to the West Indian greats of the past. It was a comparison too tempting not to draw because like the islanders, South Africa relied mostly on seamers while spin was negligible in their attack. Today, West Indies were able to judge for themselves whether that parallel is on point.

They were confronted with swing from Dale Steyn - whose speed was not what it could be but still managed to surprise them with movement - searching lines outside the off stump from Vernon Philander and searing bounce from Morne Morkel and Kyle Abbott. For 57 overs, South Africa did not give their pace pack a break and, in that time, broke the back of any resistance.

Even when West Indies were showing their best side, in the form of their first-innings opening partnership which was their highest of the day, there was not much that came easily to them. The first run Devon Smith scored was off a miscued pull shot and his first boundary came off an edge. In between that, he survived a review after Philander got one to straighten on him from leg stump and strike the front pad. The more conservative Kraigg Brathwaite found runs in less risky fashions but was subjected to a stern examination of where his off-stump was as Philander poked around it.

South Africa's new-ball pair did not make the early incision they may have been expected to but they asked enough questions. They were replaced by a second wave whose lapses in accuracy allowed West Indies a brief surf. As the ball rose on them, they used the height to target the area behind the slips. To compensate, Morkel went fuller and was driven, Abbott went fully and got it right.

That was where the decision-making of Hashim Amla proved crucial. He brought Philander back in place of Morkel just as the batsmen were settling. Although the initial breakthrough came from a questionable decision by the third umpire, who gave Smith out after a review from South Africa in which the ball did not seem to have brushed the bat or body, what followed was microcosm of how this attack have achieved success.

Abbott delivered six back-of-a-length deliveries in succession to the new batsman, Leon Johnson. Philander kept it full and outside off to Brathwaite, who was already in. It only took four deliveries like that before Brathwaite was lured into driving and caught at slip. With two new men at the crease, Amla brought back Steyn and immediately, the pressure began to fill the space like air in a balloon.

It seemed ready to pop as Steyn and Philander worked in tandem but somehow it didn't. Steyn struck the shoulder of Johnson's bat with a sharp bouncer and threatened to rattle his rib cage with one directed straight at him, Philander concentrated on peppering the zone where batsmen can be uncertain but Marlon Samuels was not. He followed the ball, and knew when it was safe to leave.

At lunch, Steyn's pre-match warning that it could be hard work to get wickets seemed accurate, especially as South Africa had to manage with four frontliners and no specialist spinner. Had West Indies been able to sustain the temperament they had showed earlier in the day, South Africa may have been found wanting but poor shot selection from Johnson let the hosts back in early in the second session.

Then, they knew they were only one wicket away from causing West Indies to unravel even though that wicket would have to be one of Samuels or Shivnarine Chanderpaul, West Indies best batsmen who looked comfortable.

The South African strategy is that when things start to seem difficult, they mentally add two wickets to the total to gauge the severity of the position. Thus, West Indies' score at that stage of 162 for 3 would have worried South Africa, 162 for 5 not so much. It turned out to be quite close. Samuels and Chanderpaul were dismissed in the space of four overs to leave West Indies 169 for 5 and the rest of the line-up, collectively, lasted less than nine overs.

South Africa were rewarded for the way they stuck to their task upfront, especially Amla. He did not allow a break in the flow and only brought on the part-time spinner when it became obvious which way the innings was headed.

After South Africa enforced the follow-on - something they have not always been keen to do in the past - the attack wilted under the weight of their load. Steyn had bowled 14 overs in the first innings and managed only five balls in the second before leaving the field with a groin injury. Morkel, who bowled 15.2 in the first innings, completed the over. Philander managed three overs in the second innings after his 15 in the first before walking off dehydrated.

South Africa were already missing two members of their regular XI, with Quinton de Kock benched after rolling his ankle in the warm-ups and Faf du Plessis out with an abdominal concern, and they had run out of substitute fielders when Philander needed to go off. Allan Donald donned the whites, ready for a comeback, but had to allow amateur players a run on Test turf.

The day descended into those kinds of distractions. Stiaan van Zyl was called on to bowl ahead of Dean Elgar, substitute fielders were on and off and dark clouds conferred above. South Africa could afford those luxuries because of the work they had done in the previous seven sessions. Whether that is enough to put them in the same league as the West Indians of the past must be weighed up against the quality of the line-up they were bowling to. If we're honest, it probably does not merit the comparison being drawn in this instance. But it does not take away from what it says about the gulf between these two teams, which is proving wider than the one in Mexico and not nearly as interesting.