The positive aspects of the West Indies performance in the recent Test series in South Africa discussed in the first instalment of this article were to some extent counterbalanced by the negative features. Most of these negative features were found in the batting which is generally considered the team’s strongest department.
One of the most disturbing features of the batting was the excessive dependence on three players, namely, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Marlon Samuels and Chris Gayle. Chanderpaul headed the batting averages with 247 runs (average 82.33), followed by Samuels with 314 runs (average 52.33) and Gayle with 179 runs (average 44.75). The other batsmen, including specialists, failed so dismally that none of them achieved as high an average as 25 runs an innings. Thus a lower-order batsman, Darren Sammy, finished fourth in the averages with an aggregate of 86 runs in four innings with an average of only 21.50.
Particularly disappointing was the batting of three players, Darren Ganga, Runako Morton and Dwayne Bravo. Ganga, after two useful innings of 33 and 45 in the first Test at Port Elizabeth, faded away badly, with scores of only 3 and 22 and 3 and 11 in the other two matches. His aggregate of 117 runs in six innings for an average or 19.50 made him seventh in his team’s averages. His failure meant that the team did not have the sizable opening stands it desired and that its need of an effective partner for Gayle continues to be urgent.
Morton, though batting at No.3, finished a lowly ninth in the batting averages with scores of 33 and 5, 23 and 1, and 1 and 37 – a total of only 100 runs and an average of only 16.66.
Bravo, more talented than Morton, was even more disappointing. Admittedly, after a sequence of five very low scores, he did succeed in playing an impressive aggressive innings of 75, including 15 fours, in the second innings of the final Test at Durban. This innings enabled him to finish sixth in his team’s averages with a total of 122 runs with an average of 20.33. Regrettably, he continues to be dismissed frequently trying to work the ball off the stumps to his favourite leg side.
The batting of Denesh Ramdin did not match his impressive performance behind the stumps. It reflected a weakness which was typical of most of his team-mates, namely, the inability to transform useful starts into substantial innings. Thus after being dismissed early in the first Test, he had scores of 21 and 32 and 30 and 25 in the other matches.
Perhaps, the most negative feature of the West Indies batting was that it continued to be prone to unexpected cataclysmic collapses. This was evident on thee occasions. Firstly, in the second innings at Port Elizabeth the team was cruising along at 122 for two but then lost six wickets for 22 runs, ending the third day’s play at 146 for eight, and was dismissed the following morning for 175 runs.
The other two collapses occurred in the final Test. On the first day the team was routed for 139 runs in only 34.3 overs forty minutes after lunch. Amazingly, it lost its first five wickets for only 33 runs and its first seven for 74. The 139 runs were its second lowest score in 13 Tests against South Africa. Furthermore, in the second innings it collapsed from 232 for three to 317 all out.
Although the team’s batting was much more culpable than the bowling in the Test series, there were two features of the bowling which left much to be desired. One was the performance in the third Test where all the bowlers with the possible exception of Jerome Taylor failed to maintain the commendable control of line and length which they had demonstrated in the first two Tests. This enabled the South Africans, harnessed in the earlier games, to amass a mammoth total of 556 for four declared, including 84 fours and two sixes, in only 120 overs at an unusually fast rate of 4.63 runs an over. Three batsmen made centuries- Smith 147, Prince 123 and de Villiers 103 not out – and two scored fifties – Kallis 74 and Amla 69. All the bowlers conceded over four runs an over and Fidel Edwards over five.
The second negative aspect of the bowling was that on the whole, only two bowlers were really penetrative, namely, Bravo who took 10 wickets at 20.30 runs each and Taylor whose nine wickets cost 31.77 apiece. The four other regular bowlers were for the most part expensive and ineffective. Thus in the series Darren Powell took seven wickets at 59 runs each and Sammy and Samuels two wickets at 69.50 apiece, while Edwards had two victims at 78 runs each.
The final instalment of this article will evaluate the Test series in the light of the future of West Indies cricket.
