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Bizarre goings-on at Newlands

Tuesday, January 6 2004

Centuries by Jacques Kallis and Herschelle Gibbs were the highlights of a quite bizarre fourth day of the third test between South Africa and the West Indies at Newlands today.

A gloomy Cape Town morning witnessed South Africa continue their second innings on 38 without loss, a lead of 143 with all second innings wickets intact in a game which the West Indies had to win in order to maintain any interest in the series.

In the second over of the morning, Fidel Edwards exposed Graeme Smith's uncertainty outside off stump with a ball which nipped back a little off the seam. Smith, intent on having nothing to do with the delivery shouldered arms, only to hear the awful sound of leather on timber as he departed for just 24.

Vasbert Drakes then produced a ball which had Jacques Rudolph wafting outside his own off stump only to give the simplest of catches to wicket-keeper Ridley Jacobs. Rudolph's second innings duck was a lot less memorable than his first innings century.

At 50-2, the West Indies were right back in the contest but as has happened so often before in this series, they were thwarted by a pair who had already plundered 693 runs against them in just two and a half matches.

Batting with little urgency and seemingly fewer problems, Jacques Kallis and Herschelle Gibbs might have been playing in an exhibition game as opposed to a test match. Edwards huffed, Sanford and Drakes puffed yet the door which they had oh-so-briefly prised open was slammed cruelly back in their faces by two players at the top of their form.

Gibbs was selective, waiting for the frequent errant deliveries before despatching them to the boundary whereas Kallis seemed content to push the singles and rotate the strike, aided on more than one occasion by quite alarming lapses in the field.

With lunch out of the way and both batsmen past their half-centuries, the afternoon seemed set fair for a run-fest and so it was fleetingly, but the weather had other ideas as the drizzle turned to a steady downpour, sending all and sundry seeking the shelter of the pavilion. Eventually, the rain ceased and play resumed following a three hour delay, but the earlier impetus had gone.

Kallis and Gibbs, upon the resumption, seemed to go back in their shell as South Africa seemed more concerned with not losing the game as opposed to winning it. Both batsmen ground their way towards inevitable hundreds in this series of centuries in soporific style, and the West Indian fielders duly switched off in the balmy evening sunshine.

When Gibbs eventually steered Edwards to third man to go to three figures, it signalled the start of a quite remarkable onslaught as if to reward those spectators who had stuck it out through the rain delay. Sarwan came in for the worst of the treatment, his gentle leg-side spin repeatedly smashed to all parts, principally twenty rows back at square leg.

Edwards was once again smashed out of the attack to be replaced by Chris Gayle before Kallis, too, greeted with relish this offer of part-time ineptitude by progressing serenely to his own century before joining Gibbs in the run jamboree.

Gibbs launched one ball from Gayle fully 40 yards beyond the boundary, then Kallis did likewise to Sarwan to raise the 300 and in the process take the partnership beyond 250. Four balls later, Herschelle Gibbs was on his way back to the pavilion with 142 against his name, well caught by Gayle at deep midwicket.

It was a real surprise to see Gary Kirsten striding to the wicket. The previous half-hour seemed to point to a swift declaration, but it was not to be. Kallis smote Gayle for successive sixes - the second courtesy of an absolute howler by the fielder at long-off who compounded the dropping of an absolute sitter by somehow contriving to spoon the ball over the rope on the full.

Kallis scythed a further boundary over cover off the hapless Gayle before play ended for the day with South Africa a seemingly unsurmountable 440 ahead. With 105 overs scheduled for play tomorrow, the West Indies are likely to face a further blitz in the morning before the finishing-post is absolutely out of sight. After all, this is test cricket, not a charity, the series would then in the bag and South Africa have already seen what Chris Gayle and Brian Lara can do to their own attack.

Jacques Kallis has now scored centuries in each of his last three test matches, a feat only achieved previously for South Africa by Alan Melville who reached three figures in the 'timeless test' in 1939 and followed that up with 189 and 104* at Trent Bridge and 117 at Lord's in 1947. History beckons, Jacques.

South Africa 532 (Boucher 122*, Rudolph 101, McKenzie 76, Kallis 73, Sanford 4-132)
and
335-3 (Gibbs 142, Kallis 130*)
lead
West Indies 427(Gayle 116, Lara 115, Nel 5-87)
by 440 runs


Posted by Eddie