da gbg bet： When will it end
Haydn Gill13-May-2001When will it end?The depressing sequence of inevitable West Indies defeats was extendedto No. 5 yesterday after South Africa taught them a lesson in how todefend a seemingly modest total.Utilising conditions that were friendly for bowlers, South Africadisplayed the tenacity that have made them one of internationalcricket’s most feared teams.For once, the West Indies appeared to have a genuine chance of winningafter they restricted the visitors to 190 in mainly overcastconditions at a packed Queen’s Park Oval.The South Africans, however, admirably defended the type of totals theWest Indies could not in previous matches to the extent that they wonby a relatively comfortable margin of 53 runs.They bowled straight for the most part, produced a few wicket-takingdeliveries and fielded with their customary efficiency in spite of thedistractions over the recent revelations of marijuana use by some oftheir team members.West Indies’ response to the target was encouraging for a period. Theypassed 100 with three wickets down, but as the asking rate keptincreasing, so too did the fall of wickets and the last seven fell for29.By the time they were all out for 137, many fans were already on theirway home.It was the West Indies’ fourth lowest total at the ground, but Hooperrefused to blame the pitch.It wasn’t the best track that we played on in the six games, but itwasn’t poor by any means, he said.The ball kept a bit low but South Africa worked and got 190 on it andwe struggled to even get 150. I don’t think you can blame the wicket,but it wasn’t the best One-Day wicket.Instead, the West Indies captain was singing a familiar tune.It’s disappointing to set games up and then not being able to finishthem off, Hooper said. We can’t drop in the towel and get negative anddisillusioned. We’ve got to keep working hard and try to rectify theareas which are giving us problems.West Indies found the pitch even more challenging than South Africadid and it took them the better part of four overs for their firstrun, courtesy of a no-ball from debutant Andre Nel which ShivnarineChanderpaul edged to the ‘keeper.Nel did get his just reward when Daren Ganga edged a beauty to firstslip.It made way for Brian Lara, who immediately raised the tempo instroking 41 off 63 balls. The Prince of Port-of-Spain was just aboutgetting into top stride when a combination of his misjudgment andJonty Rhodes’ typically outstanding fielding silenced a crowd of morethan 20 000.Lara pulled Justin Kemp through mid-wicket and mid-on off successiveballs and 11 were taken from the 26th over when he and ShivnarineChanderpaul were indecisive over a single to point. Lara virtuallygave up and he was well short of his crease when Rhodes’ direct throwhit the stumps at the bowler’s end.Struggling ChanderpaulChanderpaul (27 off 84 balls) never came to terms with the surface orthe bowling and most of the spectators were relieved when left-armunorthodox spinner Paul Adams spun one away from him for Mark Boucherto complete the stumping.The match was still in the balance at 108 for three in the 38th overbut Nel delivered telling blows in consecutive balls by dismissingHooper and Ricardo Powell. Even if the pitch was not the easiest forbatting, the West Indies bowlers should still be given credit fortheir control after Hooper asked South Africa’s new-look XI to batfirst on a strip with an extra tinge of grass.With the exception of a third-wicket stand of 92 in 21.5 overs betweenNeil McKenzie and Kemp, South Africa, who made four changes from theline-up that wrapped up the series three days earlier, struggledagainst an attack in which almost everyone played his part.The leg-breaks of Dinanath Ramnarine were expensive after he came onat the half-way stage, but Cameron Cuffy, Corey Collymore, KerryJeremy, along with the off-spin combination of Hooper and MarlonSamuels each chipped in with two wickets apiece.Cuffy and Collymore, in for his first match of the series, applied theearly pressure to the extent that the first ten overs produced only 20runs.By then, Cuffy’s sharp break-back had accounted for Herschelle Gibbs,whose run-scoring and off-field activities have commanded just as muchattention in recent days.The tall Vincentian removed Boeta Dippenaar after he laboured 37 ballsfor seven runs. Cuffy’s inward movement earned him a lbw verdictbefore South Africa recovered through the aggression of Kemp and themore measured strokeplay of McKenzie, who showed little effects fromthe hamstring injury that sidelined him for the previous four matches.Especially strong off the pads, McKenzie counted eight of SouthAfrica’s 14 boundaries in an innings of 73 off 117 balls. He was theone who looked likely to boost the total to over 200, but Collymorekept him scoreless for three balls in the 41st over before removinghim with the help of a diving catch by wicket-keeper Ridley Jacobs.Before McKenzie went, Hooper tightened West Indies’ grip with adouble-strike in successive overs. The victims were the dangerousKemp, whose 46 included a stunning six over long-on off Jeremy, andJacques Kallis, bowled between bat and pad attempting a nondescriptshot.The West Indies captain was again tight throughout his ten overs andwhen Samuels replaced him after 40 overs, he was just as effective inclaiming the wickets of Pollock and Paul Adams.Jeremy, under the microscope after he was not given a single ball inBarbados, conceded 28 runs from his first six overs, but came back totake two wickets in a commendable second spell.