West Indies batsman Vasbert Drakes avoids a bouncer from South Africa's Shaun Pollock during the first day of the second Test match at Kingsmead in Durban yesterday. Drakes scored an unbeaten 40 to help the West Indies to 232 for eight, before rain stopped play.
-ReutersDURBAN, South Africa, CMC:
REVIVED AFTER an atrocious start by their captain and the team's most renowned fighter, the West Indies go into the second day of the second Test against South Africa seeking to maintain the rearguard that lifted them to 232 for eight at stumps on a rain-shortened first day yesterday at Kingsmead Stadium.
Reduced to 17 for four and then 50 for five after Graeme Smith won a crucial toss and put the visitors in on a pitch tailor-made for fast bowlers, Brian Lara sparked the recovery with a masterful innings of 72, counteracting the treacherous early conditions with all the class he could muster.
Playing his 100th Test match the seventh West Indian to reach the landmark his effort would have been in vain but for the valiant support of Ridley Jacobs. The veteran wicketkeeper/batsman played with typical muscular gusto in racing to 58, his fifth half-century in Tests against South Africa.
Their sixth-wicket partnership of 98, achieved at better than a run-a-minute, made a mockery of the desperate struggles of the top order earlier in the day.
Showing the sort of character that was sadly absent on the last tour five years ago, the resistance was extended into the lower order, much to the frustration of the South Africans, as Vasbert Drakes and Adam Sanford both surpassed their previous Test best scores in featuring in an unbroken ninth-wicket partnership of 41.
As in the first Test in Johannesburg, Makhaya Ntini inflicted most of the damage, claiming four wickets for 56 runs from 17 overs, to lift his tally in the series to 13.
Shaun Pollock, playing on his home ground, and the gangly Andre Nel claimed two wickets each, but none could have expected to still be in the field when the showers that threatened all day eventually arrived shortly after tea to bring an end to play with 25 of the mandatory 90 overs still to be bowled.
Ironically, it was the South Africans, who were happier to leave the field, having been held up at a time when they fully expected to complete the job started so spectacularly in the morning.
Dark clouds hung low overhead and the ball moved menacingly at the start. It proved too much of a challenge for Wavell Hinds and Ramnaresh Sarwan, both victims of Pollock, while Ntini seemed to set the stage for a devastating rout in removing Daren Ganga and Shivnarine Chanderpaul.
The quartet fell to catches either to the wicketkeeper or the slip cordon and when Carlton Baugh, drafted in as a specialist batsmen in the absence of any other viable option, strode to the middle to join his captain, memories of pitifully small totals on recent tours came flooding back.
Playing with abandon that belied the level of the dilemma, the diminutive Jamaican crashed four boundaries in 21 before edging Nel to Jacques Kallis at second slip. By then Lara was well entrenched, covering the line of every delivery with exaggerated care and venturing to play the full-blooded attacking shot only occasionally.
Jacobs, however, emboldened him with his aggression, and with both benefiting from chances, the pair played brilliantly immediately after lunch, striking a succession of boundaries as the South Africans lost their discipline.
Jacobs was first to the half-century with nine boundaries off just 59 deliveries, while Lara soon followed, striking Andrew Hall for his seventh four to reach his 42nd Test 50 off 90 balls. The batting feast could not last.
As he did on the last day at The Wanderers, Nel broke the partnership in trapping Jacobs lbw, while Lara could not get out of the way of a lifting delivery from Ntini angled into his body and the ball slid off the face of his bat for Pollock to gleefully accept the catch at first slip.
A swift decline seemed imminent when Ntini bowled Dillon to reduce West Indies to 191 for eight, but as the conditions eased considerably, Drakes played sensibly while Sanford showed commendable determination in defying everything the South Africans tried, including the part-time leg-spin of Jacques Rudolph for a couple of overs.
Mindful of the improving state of the pitch and the strength of the hosts' batting, the visitors will be hoping for a few more runs on the second day and a similar spirit of defiance and determination when they take the field as they seek to keep the series alive.
