3rd Test: South Africa defeats West Indies with ease
South Africa finished its Caribbean tour with an unbeaten record when West Indies lost the third and final Test match with a day to spare at Kensington Oval Bridgetown, Barbados. They were defeated by 7 wickets at a venue that was once reckoned as the West Indian fortress in the seventies and eighties.
Shivnarine Chanderpaul's optimism to pile up a cutthroat lead over the visitors on Day 4 was over turned by a scary spell by Morne Morkel. It was magical Morkel who ensured a quick end to the opposition’s resistance.
On the third day of the match, when the West Indian batsmen had almost capitulated in front of the rampaging South Africa bowlers, it was Chanderpaul who with support from Shillingford stood firm, taking his side into the lead. After Shane Shillingford’s dismissal shortly before stumps, the remaining players failed to put up a fight.
Sulieman Benn was troubled by Morkel’s round the wicket attacks. The ball moved both ways which irritated the left-hander a lot and finally nipped out his stumps. Benn could only add 9 more runs to the scorecard when he was sent back to the pavilion. Kemar Roach was the second victim of Morkel who had been troubled by a series of short deliveries and finally was caught behind by Mark Boucher.
Chanderpaul had been quite confident from the West Indies side. Morkel finished off the tail by sacking Brandon Bess, who was standing in his debut Test. The hosts reached the end of their second innings when Bess pushed a short-length ball into the hands of Jacque Kallis who was standing in the slips. The poor hosts could not compile a “competitive lead” and only managed to put up 47 runs for Smith’s men to chase. Morkel was South Africa’s bowling magic on the fourth day where he took 3 wickets in just three overs.
Roach was quite aggressive when the visitors started their run-chase. He sacked the top order belligerently. He was equally aggressive with the ball as well as in his verbal exchange. But South Africa was done with their job, thwarting the hosts with seven wickets with Day 5 still to be played.
The success of the South African team could be attributed to their fabulous bowling line. Their pace attack has been quite successful throughout the series. On the other end, South Africa’s spin attack, featuring four frontline spinners, was equally stunning. Smith’s decision to include a spinner in the shape of Johan Botha was quite successful. The gradually deteriorating pitch assisted the spinners a lot in Barbados. The pitch that initially seemed to be unfavourable for the seamers, changed dramatically as Morkel and Dale Steyn provided the team with superb bowling variations that trembled the batting line of the West Indies.
The losing captain Chris Gayle had said that the responsibility of the team’s 5-0 devastating loss in the ODI series falls more on the poor performance of the batsmen. However, some of the players who did make the Test squad failed to execute their due role. Dale Richards, who was called-in for the last Test after replacing Travis Dowlin, lost his wicket ridiculously in both innings, playing unnecessary shots into the hands of fielders.
Equally irresponsible was Narsingh Deonarine’s dismissal in the second innings. He played a sensible first innings, but played an irresponsible shot to short cover into the hands of Prince. Likewise, former vice-captain Denesh Ramdin’s dismissal in the second innings was also a result of an immature shot. West Indies was whitewashed by Smith’s men in all the formats of international cricket. The reckless approach followed by the hosts helped the visitors accomplish their task quite easily. Gayle’s men need to improve their batting line in order to compete with the cricketing giants of the world.
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