Tony Becca - FROM THE BOUNDARY WEST INDIES captain Brian Lara must be relieved that the Test series against South Africa is over.
It must have been difficult to captain a team with such a weak bowling attack to set a field for bowlers who, as they once again demonstrated in Centurion's Supersport Park, could not even bowl on one side of the wicket.
Going into the match two-down after losing the first two and drawing the third, the West Indies were hoping for at least another draw. That, however, was not to be, and although the captain's decision not to bat first on a good pitch, on a pitch with a history of favouring batsmen is still difficult to understand, even though there were, as usual, a few dropped catches, the main reason for the defeat was the bowling.
The Windies bowling, surprisingly without left-arm spinner Dave Mohammed and to a lesser extent pacer Adam Sanford but with Mervyn Dillon, lacked skill, it lacked consistency, it lacked aggression and after hopping to 301 before losing their first wicket in the 67th over, South Africa's batsmen made merry with Graeme Smith, Herschelle Gibbs and Jacques Kallis thumping centuries.
The bowling was so embarrassing that once when Gibbs, with the score over 400 for two, attempted to hook a delivery without getting into position for the shot and one South African commentator chided him for being careless, another remarked, "Well, the guys are now just enjoying themselves."
As bad as the bowling was, however, and although because of it the West Indies could not have won, the match was lost not only because of the bowlers, but also because of the batsmen.
INTIMIDATING
A total of 604 for six is not only huge; it is also intimidating. Good batting by the West Indies, however, could have saved the match.
As it was throughout the series, the batsmen, including those who were batting well, got out to some poor strokes - and with the batsmen not getting behind the ball, with so many of them playing back with the face of the bat open, that does not include those who were caught in the slips or at gully with the ball coming, not off the edge of the bat but off the face of the bat.
In the first innings, for example, Ramnaresh Sarwan was bowled by Makhaya Ntini off the face of the bat while attempting to play a good length delivery through the onside.
WICKETS
In the second innings, Christopher Gayle, after a wonderful performance, after he and Sarwan had pulled the West Indies out of the fire and looked like carrying them to safety, chased a wide delivery and was caught at gully as the West Indies, after starting the final day on 263 for three and trailing by only 40 runs with rain apparently on the way and both batsmen on a century each, lost their remaining seven wickets for 75 runs in 22 overs.
Add to that the batting, the approach of Dwayne Smith in both innings and the batting must take some of the blame for the West Indies failure to draw a Test match that their bowlers had made it impossible for them to win.
In the first innings, an innings during which he was beaten time and time again, Smith, one of the heroes of the drawn third Test after riding his early luck, scored 39 runs with 38 coming in boundaries - eight fours and a six; and in the second innings, after playing and missing, he went for a big drive against Ntini and was bowled for zero as the West Indies, dropping from 273 for three to 278 for six, lost three wickets for five runs in fewer than four overs in yet another surrender.
