Winless West Indies take on champs (4 December 1998)

4 December 1998

Winless West Indies take on champs

By Tony Cozier, In East London

AS American sportscasters-and some copy-cat West Indians-would say, the West Indies are now oh-and-four against South African opposition on the current double-tour.

Their defeat in the Wills Cup final in Bangladesh has now been followed by three in a row here. If the third on Wednesday was in little more than a limited-overs exhibition eventually determined by the unpredictable system now used to work out run-rates in rain-shortened matches, losing, as every sportsman knows, can become as habitual as winning.

Since their next match starting at this southern port city today is only over three days, it is hardly likely that the sequence will be extended, even if Border are present leaders in the South African provincial league, the Supersport Series. In any case, there is still some way to go to match the record of seven losses in succession in Australia two seasons back. Border owe their unusual status-they have never been champions-mainly to the outstanding fast bowling of their 29-year-old Barbadian professional, Vasbert Drakes, who heads the national averages with 25 wickets at just under 12 runs each.

He greeted the West Indies players as they arrived yesterday morning and was, understandably, keen to play against them. But, because of a stipulation that requires the provincial team to play only native players against touring teams, he will have to watch from the dressing room-probably the West Indies dressing room.

Border's bowling will be spearheaded by Makhaya Ntini, the young fast bowler who is the first black graduate from the development programme to play Test cricket and whose omission from the South African team has created a political stir. He should have a point to prove. Wicketkeeper Mark Boucher is Border's only current Test player.

As it is the only first-class match between the first and second Tests, the West Indies' immediate aim will be to sharpen the edge on key players and to put some of the others under the microscope. Brian Lara himself needs to feel his bat stroking the ball with certainty again. His last four innings have been 10, a first-ball 0, 11 and 7 and even the great players can have their confidence temporarily undermined by such a slump, as Greg Chappell, among others, can attest.

The majestic Australian had eight ducks in both forms of the game against Pakistan and the West Indies in the 1981-82 season before he snapped out of it with 176 in a Test against New Zealand. Lara's batting is such an essential factor in the Test series that a classical hundred here would be a timely boost to his team's-and his own-morale prior to the Second Test at Port Elizabeth starting next Thursday.

Also critical-in its own way as critical-is the No.6 position which has been filled over the past nine Tests (3 v Pakistan, 5 v England and the first here) by, in order, Phil Simmons, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Roland Holder, Jimmy Adams, Holder again and now Stuart Williams and, because of Carl Hooper's injury at Johannesburg, Ridley Jacobs.

Chanderpaul's 95 against Pakistan at Peshawar and Adams's 53 against England at the Queen's Park Oval are the only No. 6 scores over 50 in 16 innings. Jacobs's 42 in the third highest, an instructive point.

Adams's misfortune with the bread knife on the flight out led to Williams's swift conversion to fill the spot in the First Test but it did not cure him of his inclination to give away his wicket with poor strokes when set and playing beautifully.

After Williams's lapses in Johannesburg, Lara noted that the loss of Adams and the injury to Hooper was an open opportunity for "the others" to do well.

"The guys are here to play Test cricket, every single one, Daren Ganga, Floyd Reifer (included), and they've got to realise that, if the opportunity arises, this is the big stage and they've got to do well," he said.

That opportunity may well come sooner than later. Reifer, the tall left-hander flown out from the "A" team's tour of India and Bangladesh as Adams's replacement, scored 93 in his first appearance in the middle at Zwide on Wednesday. Another impressive innings against Border would be more than just a nudge to Lara and his fellow selectors.

Ganga, the 19-year-old right-hander on his first tour, has had only three innings and missed out at Zwide. But his 50 against Griqualand West demonstrated a maturity that suggests he would not be out of his depth in a Test match. Williams is the incumbent and likely to be retained unless he has a shocking match here and one of the other contenders does something spectacular. He has had a heap of chances already and his last cannot be far away.

"Stuart Williams at No.6, I thought, looked very good in the first innings but was a bit tied down in the second innings. There is room for improvement," was Lara's cautionary comment after the first Test.

Source :: The Trinidad Express (https://www.trinidad.net/express/)