Tony Becca - FROM THE BOUNDARY THE THIRD Test match in Cape Town ended in a draw on Tuesday and although the result means that South Africa, winners of the first two matches, have clinched the four-match series, the West Indies should be happy.
Back in 1998-99, the West Indies were thrashed 5-0. After losing easily in Johannesburg and Durban, they were in danger of another whitewash, that would have been a real embarrassment, the draw ensured that that will not happen, and although they can no longer draw the series, that is one reason, and a really good one at that, why the West Indies should be happy.
There is, however, one other reason why the West Indies should be happy and that is the performance of their batsmen.
After their bowlers and their fielders had allowed South Africa to post 532 in their first innings, the West Indies, thanks to Chris Gayle and captain Brian Lara, replied with 427, and after South Africa had smashed 335 for three in their second innings and left the West Indies 441 to win off 105 overs on the final day, Lara and Sarwan and then Dwayne Smith led the West Indies to 354 for five.
In a Test match in which South Africans Jacques Rudolph, Mark Boucher, Herschelle Gibbs and Jacques Kallis scored centuries while enjoying themselves against the tame West Indies attack, the four West Indians, and particularly so Gayle, Lara and Smith, were magnificent not against an attack comparable to their own, not against their own butter-fingered fielders, but against an attack that is among the best in the world and a set of fielders that is as good as any.
Batting with an injury and like a man possessed and with South Africa on the hunt after their massive first innings, Gayle, the big left-hander, moved into pacers Shaun Pollock, Makhaya Ntini and Andre Nel and caned them with shots all around the boundary in one of the greatest broadside attacks by an opening batsman in the history of the game.
In an innings that will be talked about for a long time, an innings during which he hit the ball so hard, so often, and right around the compass that the bowlers simply did not know where to bowl to him, Gayle, 52 out of 73 off 12.3 overs, 100 out of 125 off 22.5, scored 116 with 50 coming off 37 deliveries with one six and 10 fours and 100 coming off 79 deliveries with one six and 19 fours.
It was an innings so brutal that when, after almost every stroke, South Africa's bowler lifted their arms above their heads and looked to the sky, they must have been praying for divine intervention.
In contrast to Gayle's explosion on the second day when he hopped to 112 not out, Lara's innings was a work of art.
BRUTAL INNINGS
With the West Indies losing wickets at regular intervals and struggling after Gayle's dismissal at 183 for two early on the third morning, Lara, the usually free-scoring Lara, batted for 326 minutes and scored an invaluable 115 before he was last man out.
Batting in his first Test, Smith arrived at the crease on Tuesday with the West Indies on 224 for four in the 68th over and still in danger of losing the Test match. In an innings almost comparable to Gayle's, in becoming the youngest West Indies batsman to score on a century on debut since George Headley in 1930, and the first since Basil Williams in 1977, the 20-year-old batsman backed his skill.
Instead of going on the defensive in an effort to bat out time, he took on the bowlers and with the 100 coming off 93 deliveries, the result was 105 not out off 105 deliveries with 15 fours and two sixes one of them, a glorious front-foot drive over cover off Pollock.
Smith played a few rash strokes at the start, but the longer he batted, the better he batted, and in the end it was a glorious, confident display by one so young and so inexperienced.
Victory in Cape Town would have been great, but all things considered, the West Indies should be happy with the draw and with the performance of their batsmen. There is no longer a threat of a whitewash and in their different styles, at different stages of the game, the injured Gayle, captain Lara and newcomer Smith batted brilliantly.
