Proteas press home advantage

Jacques Kallis was the star as South Africa converted their Day 1 dominance into an unbeatable position, despite a spirited West Indian comeback.

Resuming on 368-3, Martin van Jaarsveld never really got into his stride, and had added only 4 to his overnight 69* before falling leg before wicket to Mervyn Dillon, his highest Test score to date, but he will be disappointed to not have gone on to a century.

Neil McKenzie replaced him, but never really looked comfortable as the early bowling was tight, and he took an hour to score just 8 before edging Fidel Edwards to Ridley Jacobs. The stand of 26 with Kallis had taken up 14 overs, and a bit of life needed to be injected.

Wicket-keeper Mark Boucher did that, as he scored a breezy 27 before being caught by Daren Ganga off Corey Collymore, and former captain Shaun Pollock then joined in the fun as he added 50 more with Kallis, to take to score at one point to a very imposing 510-6.

The attack lacked variety, and Chris Gayle would no doubt have bowled a fair few overs but for his hamstring injury from the first day. Such were the problems, that Wavell Hinds was called on to bowl an extended spell, and it turned out to be quite fruitful, as after Dillon picked up a deserved 2nd wicket in bowling Kallis (albeit via an edge onto the stumps) for a masterful 158 from 297 balls, Hinds removed both Pollock and Andre Nel in consecutive balls.

Suddenly it was 520-9, and the West Indians had removed 6 men for 152 in the day, a considerable improvement on Friday.

But as is increasingly common in International Cricket, the last wicket added a few runs, as Makhaya Ntini and Robin Peterson smashed 41 runs in just 8 overs before Peterson edged Hinds to Jacobs and the final score was 561.

Hinds finished with career best figures of 3-79 from 17.4 overs, but the pick was definitely Dillon, who managed to concede just 96 runs for 36 overs whilst taking 2 wickets.

With Gayle unable to bat until number 7 (or until about 8 and half hours into the innings), Hinds and Ganga opened the innings, and started confidently in the aim for 362 against an accurate opening burst from Pollock and Ntini.

The breakthrough came when Nel got a false shot from Hinds, and Peterson took an easy catch at Backward Point.

Hinds had made 10, and it was 43-1, but that was the only man to fall, as Ramnaresh Sarwan came in at 3 and the pair saw their side through to 87-1 at the close, still 474 runs behind, but with Brian Lara and Shivarine Chanderpaul still to bat (as well as Gayle) on a decent looking pitch, the follow should be averted, and with it a draw secured. Much depends on a solid first session tomorrow.

Posted by Marc