CAPE TOWN, South Africa, CMC – Team manager Sir Richie Richardson believes West Indies can put pressure on South Africa over the final two days of the third Test, once they can produce a strong batting performance today.
West Indies ended day three of the Newlands contest on 88 for two in their second innings, four runs shy of making South Africa bat again.
Leon Johnson was unbeaten on 37 and was engaged in a 61-third wicket stand with Marlon Samuels who was not out on 26, and Richardson said a lot depended on this pair.
“They (South Africa) are going to have to bat last and it’s important that two of our batsmen dig in and if two of our batsmen get centuries, we could see a very interesting match,” said Sir Richie.
“The two guys batting at the moment are looking pretty, pretty solid so we’re hoping they can put on a massive partnership tomorrow and then we’ll take it from there.”
West Indies batsmen have been guilty of squandering good starts, so Sir Richie will be hoping that both Johnson and Samuels can convert their current scores in to hundreds.
In the first innings, Johnson (56), Jermaine Blackwood (56) and captain Denesh Ramdin (53) all got half-centuries while opener Devon Smith (47) and Samuels (43) also looked poised for big scores before losing their wickets.
Sir Richie said this was an area which was being addressed among the team’s batsmen.
“A number of our batsmen have been getting starts, we just have to work on turning these 45s, 50s, 60s into big hundreds and the quicker we can get that sorted, the better it will be,” said the former West Indies captain.
“A number of players are quite young and inexperienced but they certainly have the potential and it is something we are working on – to be more consistent, to bat longer and turn good scores into big scores.”
West Indies trail the series following a heavy innings defeat in the first Test at Centurion and after the draw in Port Elizabeth last week, need a win here if they are to get anything out of the series.
Sir Richie said the team had improved since the first game and lamented the lack of tour matches which would have enabled players to find their touch.
“We’ve shown quite a bit of improvement from the first Test match and that’s what we asked for. We did not play a hell of a lot of cricket before we got here so we make use of the opportunity every time we play. We’ve asked for that and we’ve seen that,” Sir Richie pointed out.
“The more the guys play and play in these conditions, they get more used to the opposition and more used to the conditions and certainly you would see the team playing better and better.
“Unfortunately it’s a short series and these days there’s not much time in between so you don’t get much chance to have three, four matches before you start a Test series but that’s how it is so we just have to learn how to dig in as early as possible.
“We had a bad start but we’re happy with the progress that we’ve been making.”
South Africa rattled up 421 all out on yesterday’s third day, in reply to West Indies’ 329, to secure a lead of 92 runs on first innings.
