Tight test

Time and again, the West Indies appeared to be building a useful position on the second day of the second Cable & Wireless Test at the Queen's Park Oval yesterday.

Each time, South Africa's champion fast bowler Alan Donald returned to end promising partnerships.

Once, and importantly, he gained the benefit of umpire Darrel Hair's clear error to remove Wavell Hinds, the most adventurous and threat ening batsman on the day.

The upshot was that the West Indies ended the day 250 for seven, 36 behind with wicket-keeper Ridley Jacobs left with only three bowlers to keep him company when play resumes. It is an unsteady position for a team having to bat last on a pitch with a tradition of increasing deterioration.

A lead of 50 would have been handy but the more realistic goal when the day began would have been 100. The West Indies are almost certain to fall short of both.

While the left-handed Hinds and his 20-year-old fellow Jamaican Marlon Samuels were putting together a second-wicket partnership of 70, the foundation was being laid on which the team's batting talismen, Brian Lara and captain Carl Hooper, could build.

Shaun Pollock claimed South Africa's only pre-lunch wicket in the day's seventh over with a clearcut lbw decision, catching the lefthanded opener Chris Gayle back and on the crease.

Hinds and Samuels made light of the reversal and came through the morning session with the occasional alarm but never reluctant to put bat to ball.

Hinds took on Donald's short-pitched challenge by repeatedly pulling and hooking him.

He copped one on the helmet and might have been caught at long-leg off a top-edge but for Makhaya Ntini's misjudgement. But it did not deter him.

Samuels settled in after a chance, low to wicket-keeper Mark Boucher's right before he had scored, and they went to lunch 89 for one.

Donald started after the break and made his first intervention with his fourth ball, removing the elegant Samuels for 35, edging loosely to third slip. These are early days in Samuels' career and he had made an immediate impression. But he now has to go on after getting a start.

Three-quarters of an hour later Donald got the benefit of umpire Hair's mistake as Hinds pushed uncertainly outside off-stump to a ball of full length.

Hinds had pummelled Donald with pulls and hooks for nine of his 12 fours in 56 and used the shot to effect against Pollock as well. He could see a happy afternoon stretching out before him and was understandably aghast to be given out to a ball that clearly missed his bat.

Half-hour later, the bustling Ntini silenced the boisterous, drum beating crowd of 20 000 - the biggest at the Oval for several years - by sending back Trinidad's favourite cricketing son, Brian Lara, for 12 to a neatly taken second slip catch from an expansive drive.

The West Indies innings was faltering at 123 for four as Lara trudged off the field. He passed Carl Hooper on the way.

Judging by the warm and rousing reception he received on his way to the middle, there is no doubt where Trinidadians stand on the issue of Hooper's promotion to the captaincy.

For the next hour and 35 minutes, there was no doubt either about the quality of the new skipper's batting. He and Ramnaresh Sarwan built a stand of 75 filled with handsome strokes that seemed likely to earn the West Indies the advantage. The two Guyanese of different generations clearly enjoy batting with each other and delighted the crowd with the touch play that is the feature of their style.

Hooper's easy dispatch of drives down the ground and Sarwan's sweet strokes square through the off-side had the sound system in the Trini Posse Stand shaking the ground.

Yet again, Donald returned to snuff out the resistance. Sarwan aimed a loose drive at the 11th ball of a second spell ten minutes to tea and edged a catch to the solitary slip. It was a disappointing end to a promising innings of 34 that included four fours and heightened the pressure on his captain.

Like Samuels, Sarwan will eventually convert his half-centuries to centuries, but the time is soon.

Batting with the sense of responsibility and certainty that earned him the captaincy, Hooper found another solid partner in Jacobs. They stayed together for the next hour, adding 37 with little bother before that man Donald came back to make his inevitable strike.

In his second over with the second new ball, the 34-year-old veteran swung an inswinger back into Hooper's pads for Hair's confirmation of an obvious lbw.

Hooper had batted flawlessly for just over two-and-three-quarter hours for his 53 but was finally beaten by the better man.

His dismissal, soon followed by Nixon McLean's drive straight to midon, swung the balance back to South Africa.

The West Indies face three difficult days.