West Indies' Jerome Taylor (centre) celebrates with stand-in skipper Dwayne Bravo after taking the wicket of South Africa's Morne Morkel (right) during the second one-day cricket international in Cape Town, South Africa, yesterday. - AP

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (CMC):

Strangled by the colle-ctive effort of disciplined, well-drilled opponents and especially paralysed by the metro-nomic accuracy of the departing Shaun Pollock, the West Indies seemed to give up the chase of a challenging target of 256 to lose the second one-day international against South Africa by 86 runs yesterday.

Despite Jerome Taylor enhan-cing his reputation even further with figures of four for 34 in the home team's total of 255 for nine batting first in ideal conditions, the tourists laboured under the lights at Newlands, eventually being dis-missed for 169 off 48.2 overs to go 2-0 down in the five-match series.

They now need to win the next match at Port Elizabeth tomorrow to keep the rubber alive before the final two fixtures in Durban and Johannesburg next weekend.

Glory for pollock

Giant fast bowler Morne Morkel was the most successful South African bowler with four for 36, but in his international farewell to the fans in Cape Town, the latter half of the match was all about Pollock.

Pollock was the first to strike with the wicket of Brenton Parchment and then returned for his final three overs to add the scalp of Denesh Ramdin, finishing with the outstanding figures of two for 13 off 10 overs with five maidens.

It earned him a richly deserved standing ovation from a near-capacity crowd of over 17,000 and subsequently the Man of the Match award.

Shivnarine Chanderpaul, nursing a bruised knee that kept him off the field for most of the South African innings, top-scored for the West Indies with 54 off 83 balls with five fours.

Yet again, he proved to be an almost immovable obstacle for the Proteas, but the veteran left-hander, who needed a runner for the final stages of his time at the crease, mystifyingly chose not to accelerate until Pollock had completed his 10 overs.

While the respect for this outstanding performer was understandable, it left the West Indies with far too much to do, especially as wickets were falling regularly after a reasonably promising opening.

Worse start

South Africa were actually off to a worse start than the West Indies thanks to Taylor's pace and accuracy.

The Jamaican fast bowler marked his return to the team with the early wickets of Herschelle Gibbs to a catch by wicketkeeper Ramdin for five and Jacques Kallis, who drove to Chanderpaul at wide mid-off for two, as South Africa slipped to 18 for two in the fifth over.

On the same ground where he returned to form with a match-winning innings of 85 on the last day of the second Test three weeks earlier, captain Graeme Smith went a long way towards justifying the decision to bat first, bludgeoning his way to 86 off 107 balls with 11 fours.

He put on 91 for the third wicket with A.B. de Villiers, who contributed 45 and smashed Ravi Rampaul out of the attack as the fast-medium bowler was hastily withdrawn by skipper Dwayne Bravo after conceding 33 runs off three wayward overs.

De Villers' demise in the 23rd over, lbw to Darren Sammy, brought in JP Duminy, another hometown player riding the crest of a wave after guiding his team to victory with an unbeaten 79 at Centurion five days earlier.

The left-hander's vein of form continued with a stroke-filled 68 from 81 balls, adding 72 for the fourth wicket with Smith and holding the latter half of the innings together after Smith was caught behind off Marlon Samuels.

Stemmed flow of runs

Taylor apart, it was Samuels and Sewnarine Chattergoon, drafted in as a last resort by a desperate Bravo, who effectively stemmed the flow of runs.Samuels' 10 overs of part-time off spin cost just 42 runs while Chattergoon's uncomplicated leg-breaks cost only 30 runs off seven overs.

Unexpectedly tied down by the pair, South Africa's anxiety to accelerate in the final overs saw them losing five wickets for 23 runs in the last five overs, including three in an excellent final over bowled by Taylor, during which he conceded just one run, adding the scalps of Pollock and Johan Botha as fitting reward for his impressive performance.