WITH the phenomenal Shivnarine Chanderpaul inevitably to the fore and the energised fast bowlers – and fielders – following in his wake, the West Indies continued to make a mockery of their depressed status at St.George’s Park here yesterday.
The situation at the end of the second day was basically what had been widely expected. The difference was that the team with 408 in their first innings was the West Indies and the one faltering at 122 for five in response was South Africa.
The foundation for such a scenario was laid on the first day when the West Indies, led by returning captain Chris Gayle’s instant aggression and Marlon Samuels’ composed 94, compiled 281 for four after they were sent in.
Building on such a platform, Chanderpaul underpinned the remainder of the innings under bright, cloudless skies on a pitch that gained pace from the first day.
He advanced in his own unflustered way, with nudges and pushes into gaps in the field and the occasional sweetly timed boundary.
It was his 17th Test hundred, ensuring a strong total.
Even then it took a special ball to finally penetrate his defence after six hours 40 minutes and 254 balls
of the single-minded tenacity that has always typified his cricket.
Andre Nel delivered it from round the wicket and somehow persuaded it to deviate enough on the angle to hit off-stump as the left-hander stood perplexed as to how it got through.
In the process, Chanderpaul, physically frail but with the mental strength of granite, joined his fellow West Indian, Sir Everton Weekes, and the Zimbabwean left-hander Andy Flower as the only batsmen with seven consecutive Test scores over 50.
Significantly, six have been since the potentially crippling exit of the other, contrasting linchpin of the batting, Brian Lara, and three have now been converted into three figures.
With his exaggerated square-on stance, fidgety movements and denial of flash, Chanderpaul is no Lara but beauty is in the eye of the beholder and there has been nothing more beautiful for West Indians this year than the sight of his consistent defiance.
With the rarity of working from such a strong base, Daren Powell and Jerome Taylor, with the support of two sharp slip catches and slick ground fielding, then further shocked South Africa with five wickets between them.
Powell conjured up two ideal outswingers to dispatch Herschelle Gibbs to a keeper’s catch with the fifth ball of the first over and Hashim Amla, scorer of hundreds against New Zealand in his previous two Tests innings last month, with the first of a second spell that yanked out the middle stump.
Taylor, locking on his radar after a wayward start, claimed Graeme Smith, the left-handed captain, lbw as he aimed to leg and Jacques Kallis, gathered in to his right by the flying Dwayne Bravo at third slip from an indeterminate shot, without scoring.
It was a sudden comedown for South Africa’s talisman.
His previous seven Test innings had brought him five hundreds. This was his first duck since he played on to Powell at Bourda in the first Test of the last series between the teams in 2005.
Excited by such success, the lines became scrambled for the two fast bowlers, allowing the left-handed Ashwell Prince and the right-handed AB deVilliers the freedom of easy boundaries in a stand of 33.
But Powell was not through for the day. Angling the ball across Prince, he found a tentative outside edge and Runako Morton pouched the catch at second slip.
There was time enough to place even more pressure on the South Africans but Fidel Edwards, persistently short and ineffective, could not emulate his colleagues and wicket-keeper Mark Boucher remained to the end with deVilliers.
On the previous day, Chanderpaul acted as the immovable buffer to Samuels in a fourth wicket stand of 111. Now he found another admirable partner in Darren Sammy.
The tall St.Lucian, in his second Test, entered after 45 minutes following Makaya Ntini’s removal of Bravo and Denesh Ramdin and batted with as much confidence as anyone for an hour and a half in scoring 38 and adding 57.
Bravo once again succumbed to his penchant for trying to work runs through the leg-side, Ramdin to a good one.
The resulting top-edge from the former looped towards gully where Ntini appeared above Gibbs on his follow through to catch it. Ramdin managed to snick his to Boucher.
The immediate impression on Sammy’s debut appearance at Old Trafford last summer, when he had seven second innings wickets, was his temperament. It was confirmed again as he used his height either to reach well forward to defend or drive or to stand tall and punch some telling strokes through the off-side.
The South Africans were at wit’s end as the pair gathered comfortable runs either side of lunch when Sammy’s first misjudgement ended his stay.
A needless call from the bowler’s end for a tight single found his extended bat on the crease as deVillier’s diving, underarm throw hit the stumps.
The more he plays, the better Sammy is bound to become. He turned 24 last week and is the kind of committed cricketer the West Indies need in the future.
Chanderpaul was 71 as he departed and his hundred and a total of over 400 were the main issues for the remainder of the innings. Powell and Taylor stayed long enough with him to see to it that both were achieved.
Taylor spent three-quarters of an hour, the early part under a bouncer bombardment from Dale Steyn, and carried Chanderpaul to 86 before Steyn yorked him.
Powell was there when Chanderpaul’s top-edged sweep for three off left-arm spinner Paul Harris brought his hundred, his fourth against South Africa and his 15th in the past five years.
Ironically, it was Chanderpaul was left first. Even though last man Edwards had two hands, he lasted only three balls from Nel. The second bowled him but was ruled illegal by point umpire Aleem Dar because three fielders, not two, were standing behind square. He carved the next to point.
By then, the total was adequate enough. Powell and Taylor then set about capitalising on it.
CHANDERPAUL’S
SUCCESSIVE SEVEN
HIS 104 against South Africa at Port Elizabeth yesterday placed Shivnarine Chanderpaul alongside Everton Weekes of the West Indies and Andy Flower of Zimbabwe as the only batsmen with seven successive scores over 50 in Tests. His sequence:
69: v Pakistan at Karachi, November 2006.
74: v England at Lord’s, May 2007.
50 and 116 not out: v England at Old Trafford, June 2007.
136 not out and 70: v England at Chester-le-Street,June 2007.
104: v South Africa at Port Elizabeth, December 2007.
