West Indies totally outplayed (3 November 1998)

3 November 1998

West Indies totally outplayed

Tony Becca

Cricket, like so many other sports, is unpredictable, the limited-over version is different from the longer game, and although the odds are on South Africa, the West Indies could win the Test series starting later this month.

In the Wills Cup final in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on Sunday, however, South Africa totally outplayed the West Indies in every department of the game from start to finish, and in the process, they taught the former world champions many lessons.

In the field, South Africa, faced with the prospect of Philo Wallace destroying their fast bowlers, opened the bowling with offspinner Pat Symcox, and although the big hitter countered well and scored a lovely century, there is no question that the move set the tone which, for the most part, saw South Africa dominating the game and the West Indies on the defensive.

That was the first lesson. It was a lesson in thinking and planning, and coming from a team which has demonstrated a willingness to change its batting order depending on the state of the game, the condition of the pitch and the bowlers in action, a lesson how to be innovative rather than stereotype.

The second lesson was in how to use a bowling attack. Apart from the early use of Symcox, South Africa's captain Hansie Cronje looked not at who should bowl first, second, or third, or who are generally the best bowlers. He looked at the pitch, looked at the technique of the opposing batsmen and their ability to concentrate, and used his bowlers accordingly.

The pitch was slow, as it had been throughout the tournament, the batsmen, as it had been throughout, were getting out to the slower bowlers, and Cronje used them to upset the rhythm of a set of West Indian batsmen who love when the ball is coming on to the bat.

The West Indies batsmen were kept in check at the start by Symcox (10-0-29-0), and left-arm spinner Nick Boje (10-1-44-1), and destroyed later on by medium-pacer Cronje himself (10-0-44-2) and medium pacer Jacques Kallis (7.3-0-30-5) as the West Indies dropped from 180 for three to 245 all out.

In contrast to that, West Indies captain Brian Lara stuck with his two fast bowlers, and did not even call on Keith Arthurton - even though the slow left-hander had picked up four wickets for 31 runs in his 10 overs against Pakistan.

The third lesson was how to pressure batsmen.

While Cronje never missed an opportunity to bring in close fielders, Lara, who is usually an attacking skipper, never, despite the need to get wickets, pressured the South African batsmen.

Against a team which at one stage needed less then four runs an over to win the game, Lara, not even at the fall of a wicket, pressured the batsmen. The field was always back and the singles there for the taking. It was easy for South Africa.

On top of that, it was obvious that to win the West Indies had to bowl out South Africa, and apart from the late introduction of Rawl Lewis, the right-arm legspinner was instructed, not to the pitch the ball in front of the batsmen and try to get them out, but to bowl round the wicket to the right-handed batsmen and to pitch the ball outside the legstump.

On a pitch from which the ball was turning and bouncing, and in a situation where one more wicket - not a few less runs - could have made the difference, that was difficult to understand.

The fourth lesson was how to adapt to situations - how to accumulate runs. But for Wallace, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, and, for a change, Carl Hooper, the West Indian batsmen, including Lara, threw away their wickets in the mad rush for quick runs.

South Africa did not win in Dhaka because they are more talented than the West Indies. They won because they are a better team - and probably because of their exile during the years of Apartheid, they are playing with a passion to win.

South Africa appear better prepared and more focussed, and regardless of the unpredictability of the sport, regardless of the difference between one-day cricket and Test cricket, unless the West Indies can recapture the spirit of the late 1970s and the 1980s, unless they can do what they did so well in their glory days, including getting their bowlers to score some runs, they are in for a tough time in South Africa.

Source :: The Jamaica Gleaner (https://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/)