South Africa in command of final Test after Botha and Steyn’s heroics
South African bowlers were instrumental in putting South Africa in command as another batting collapse saw West Indies on the brink of another defeat. Shivnarine Chanderpaul was once again left to salvage some respect for the hosts after West Indian top order batsmen failed to perform yet again. The successes on Day 3 in the Barbados Test can be partially attributed to the South African bowlers and partially to the reckless display of the West Indian batsmen.
Even after South Africa failed to take a meaty lead, West Indies batsmen failed to seize the opportunity to get back into the match through a senseless display of shot selection. South African’s first innings lead of 115 was lower than what people were expecting them to achieve but it proved to be quite healthy for the hosts as they lost wickets on regular intervals. Despite the fact that West Indies openers Dale Richards and Chris Gayle started the second innings on a sensible and determined note but events took a predictable turn as they started playing aggressively and as a consequence, threw away their wickets on regular intervals.
Dale Richards started his innings confidently by whacking a four off Dale Steyn through the covers. Richards and Gayle batted sensibly and cautiously. Despite the fact that West Indies were trailing by a heavy lead, it would not have been a difficult task for the West Indies team to post a respectable and more importantly defendable target on the scoreboard. But suddenly, the openers ran out of patience. Richards was the first man to return to the pavilion as he mistimed a pull shot off Steyn, only to be caught in the deep. Narsingh Deonarine came one down and looked as he was in a hurry to go back. He tried to pull off a drive against Dale Steyn in his first delivery, only to be caught by Ashwell Prince at cover. With the loss of Narsingh Deonarine’s wicket, Steyn was on a hat-trick but could not make it three in three. But he came back and surprised West Indian skipper Chris Gayle. Gayle could not read the rip snorting inward movement and extra bounce resulting in his loss of wicket. He edged the ball and was caught by Mark Boucher at the back.
With West Indies under immense pressure, the responsibility fell on the old guard of West Indian cricket - Shivnarine Chanderpaul. Chanderpaul and Brendan Nash, both centurions from the previous match battled hard to help West Indies claw back into the match. But a change of strategy by Graeme Smith brought positive results for visitors. As wide cracks were visible on the pitch, Smith introduced his spinners to trouble the hosts. The spinners fully capitalized the surface to trouble the batsmen. Chanderpaul was beaten on a number of times by Johan Botha. Botha fully exploited the rough outside the left-hander’s off stump to trouble the veteran left-hander. On the other hand, Nash was also feeling the heat and was unable to cope with the spin offered by the pitch. He eventually ran out of options and was trapped by Botha as he was caught out in slip.
After Nash’s dismissal, Dwayne Bravo came to the wicket. He received the same fate as he was snared by Paul Harris on the other end. Bowling round the wicket, Harris used the full spin to square up Bravo who defended but failed to prevent the ball from bouncing back onto the stumps. After Bravo, West Indies kept on losing wickets as their batsmen failed to find any remedy to spin. Shane Shillingford and Denesh Ramdin also became victims of South African spinners. Chanderpaul kept on fighting on other hand and brought up his half century and helped hosts to ease up the looming deficit.
Earlier in the match, Suleiman Benn provided some respite to West Indies by limiting the visitors’ lead through wrapping the lower order. In doing so, he completed his third haul of five wickets or more. Prince was the main man for South Africa as he scored an unbeaten 78 runs to take South African to a first innings total to 346.
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