THERE WAS a massive crash at Queen’s Park Oval yesterday. The victims – the West Indies batsmen – could have been contacted at: 641-262-910002.
Those numbers represented the scores of the dismissed Windies batsmen after they had run into Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel.
Needless to say, the third day of this first Digicel Test was dramatic and decisive. Unable to cope with the aggression of the South African new ball pair, Chris Gayle and his men tumbled down for 102 in reply to South Africa’s first innings total of 352.
And this match will only extend well into today’s fourth day and possibly into the scheduled fifth tomorrow because South African captain Graeme Smith chose not to enforce the follow-on after West Indies comfortably missed the target by 51.
South Africa ended a day curtailed by bad light on 155 for two in their second innings, leading by 405 runs.
Their progress seemed academic and unnecessary given the earlier chaos Steyn and Morkel caused.
In 27 overs between them, the two tall fast bowlers did to the West Indies what the two tall West Indian spinners Sulieman Benn and Shane Shillingford took 82 overs to do to South Africa.
Morkel (13-7-19-4) wrecked the Windies effort right from the start of play, removing Travis Dowlin, skipper Gayle and Brendan Nash inside the first hour of play. And in a devastating six-over burst (6-2-16-5) after lunch in which he became the fourth fastest man to 200 Test wickets, Steyn virtually completed the rout.
Dumbfounded lovers of West Indies cricket who sacrificed the first two days of the Football World Cup to support their side would have been clear on one thing, however.
The real problem was technique. Technique, technique, technique!
On a pitch from which they got no great pace, Steyn and Morkel ruthlessly exploited the faulty methods of the top order against the short ball; so much so, that the first five batsmen all perished to well-directed short stuff.
Dowlin was surprised by one from Morkel that got big on him and guided it to Smith at first slip. That was in the eighth over.
Nash, promoted to an unaccustomed No. 3 spot, could feel aggrieved at his dismissal, though. Umpire Steve Davis gave him not out when he sought to evade a Morkel bouncer. The South Africans opted for the review system. Several replays seemed to suggest that at worst it was inconclusive whether the ball had brushed the batsman’s glove. But TV umpire Simon Taufel evidently convinced Davis to change his decision.
Gayle had nobody to blame but his miscalculating self when he was bowled attempting to pull a Morkel delivery that did not make the anticipated height.
At 12 for three, the makings were there for a dismal day for the home team. The South African pacers had stifled the scoring with their unrelenting line on and around off-stump. And their early examination of the top order had once more revealed a glaring weakness.
For the rest of the first session, though, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Narsingh Deonarine averted further disaster. They went to lunch on 71 for four, having restored the innings somewhat. And the Guyanese left-handers stretched their fourth wicket stand to 59 before the bacchanal started again.
Starting in the fourth over after the break, Steyn ripped out five wickets in four overs. He started by bouncing Chanderpaul (26) who could not get out of the way and gloved a high catch to wicketkeeper Mark Boucher moving to the forward short-leg region.
Next on steaming Steyn’s list was Deonarine (29) in his next over. He was clean-bowled as he shouldered arms to a ball which knocked back his off-stump. Steyn then put himself on a hat-trick at the end of the over when Shane Shillingford was too late on a delivery that moved back into him and trapped him lbw.
Denesh Ramdin avoided the hat-trick. But Sulieman Benn became Steyn’s fourth wicket of the innings and 200th in Tests when he too lost his off-stump as he played completely and tentatively down the wrong line.
An equally bemused Ravi Rampaul completed Steyn’s set when, like Deonarine, he offered no stroke to a ball that smacked off-stump.
It was as if a rumour suddenly had it that dynamite was in the ball.
In the twinkling of an eye, the WI batsmen had lost their composure.
At the other end, Morkel had earlier chipped in with the wicket of Bravo, who, anticipating a chest ball, took his eyes off one that stayed down at glove level and brushed them on its way through to Boucher.
The “crowd” could not believe it. Someone wondered whether the pitch had been switched.
Only ignominy seemed on the cards at 75 for nine. But Ramdin had not forgotten how to use his bat. And with four defiant boundaries he pushed his team past the 100-run mark in a last wicket stand of 27 with Nelon Pascal.
Jacques Kallis finally curtailed the effort by getting Pascal to lob a catch to midwicket.
Just 86 minutes had been played in the second session. But the exertions of his two destroyers apparently convinced Smith to prolong the West Indies’ agony by having a second bat. It was an ultra conservative move. So for Gayle, the last session must have been like waiting for the execution time to be decided.
It seemed a different pitch, the comfort with which the South Africans batted.
Smith got himself to an undefeated 79 (seven fours) under no pressure.
But when he returns to the crease sometime today, Gayle will not have such a luxury.
