Tony Becca, Contributing Editor
BRIDGETOWN:
THE THIRD Test of the Digicel Series between the West Indies and South Africa opens at Kensington Oval today with the home team hunting a victory that would level the count and leave them with a chance of winning the series.
One down after two matches in the four-match contest, the West Indies must win if they hope to have a chance of winning the series.
With only one more match to come after this one, a draw would leave the West Indies with nothing but a chance of sharing the series, defeat would leave South Africa winners of the Sir Vivian Richards Trophy, and the former world champions are hoping that they will be at their best.
WINNER-TAKE-ALL SHOWDOWN
After a wonderful performance that saw them batting once and South Africa twice after following on, the West Indies drew the first Test at Bourda. After putting up a fight for the better part of four days, the West Indies lost the second Test by eight wickets at Queen's Park Oval and, with so much riding on this match, the Windies are hoping that they will rise to the occasion, go the distance, win it, and set up a winner-take-all showdown at the Antigua Recreation Ground.
The odds, however, are against them and for many reasons.
Although there is not a batsman in South Africa's line-up to match Brian Lara, even though their top five of Wavell Hinds, Christopher Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Lara, and captain Shivnarine Chanderpaul can, at their best, match South Africa's first five, the tourists' line-up is deeper.
Another reason is that the West Indies bowling is not as strong as South Africa's bowling.
Although Kensington Oval was the stage of one of the greatest finishes in the history of the game, when the West Indies, thanks to fast bowlers Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh, grabbed eight wickets for 25 runs to defeat South Africa by 52 runs in the one-off Test of 1992, another reason is the venue.
Once the lion's den for visiting teams, and particularly so for their batsmen, Kensington Oval, despite a record of 21 victories for the home team and only six losses out of 41 matches, is no longer that.
Based on the results of the past three matches there a 10-wicket loss to New Zealand in 2002, a nine-wicket loss to Australia in 2003, and an eight-wicket loss to England in 2004, things have changed at Kensington Oval.
If it is still a lion's den, it is now, or getting to be, a lion's den for the home team.
Although the odds are definitely against the West Indies, victory is not impossible not if their potentially explosive batsmen bat well.
While runs, plenty of them, can ensure a draw, however, victory, under normal circumstances, will depend on the Windies' ability to dismiss South Africa twice, and if they are really hunting victory, they should go for an attack that gives them a chance of doing so.
That means there should be no Reon King and so too say a number of fans around Bridgetown and at Kensington Oval yesterday.
Based on the 12-man squad selected, the West Indies should go for pacers Daren Powell, Fidel Edwards and Dwight Washington with the medium-pace of all-rounder Bravo and the left-arm spin of Ryan Hinds in support.
MISSION
Victory is the West Indies' mission and, although the pitch, with a bit of dried grass rolled into it, looks good for batting, the talk around Kensington Oval yesterday was that if skipper Shivnarine Chanderpaul wins the toss he should send South Africa to bat and let go his trio of fast bowlers, especially if indeed they are Powell, Edwards and Washington.
Apart from really taking a good look at his bowling before doing that if he gets the opportunity, Chanderpaul would do well, however, to remember two things: he should remember that the West Indies have sent South Africa to bat five times after winning the toss and the results were four losses and one draw, and also that in 2003 at Kensington Oval, the West Indies sent Australia to bat and lost by nine wickets after the visitors said 'thank you' with a first innings 605 for nine declared.
Not even South Africa, who boast a much better attack and who have a record of two out of three after winning the toss and sending the West Indies to bat, are likely to give away the toss - certainly not if they remember their fate in 1992 when South Africa, under Kepler Wessels, won the toss, decided to field, and with the champagne on ice and the celebration a couple hours away, were destroyed on the last day.
