EAST LONDON, South Africa - (CMC) - Muscular pacer Adam Sanford offered himself as a viable option for the second Test against South Africa with a five-wicket haul, while Ramnaresh Sarwan ended a run of low scores as the West Indies worked themselves into a comfortable position at the halfway stage of the four-day match against the Border Bears at Mercedes-Benz Park, yesterday.
Sanford, ignored by the regional selectors after playing all seven Tests in the Caribbean in 2002 only to get a surprise recall as replacement for the injured Omari Banks, responded with five for 53 and played the significant role in limiting the home team to 251 all out. The tourists raced to 168 for three off 42.1 overs in their second innings - an overall lead of 195 - when bad light ended play 11 deliveries short of the minimum allotment on the second day with Sarwan on 71 and Vasbert Drakes on 24.
The vice-captain's return to form was a delight to behold. Determined not to squander another opportunity after being given the chance to open, he played with increasing freedom, driving effortlessly and cutting with surgical precision for most of his 13 boundaries.
South Africa's bowling attack and the pitch for next week's second Test in Durban are expected to pose far greater challenges than the Border bowlers on the benign surface here, but with runs already under his belt and the prospect of more to come today, Sarwan should be in a much better frame of mind come Boxing Day.
The same cannot be said of Wavell Hinds. Even with a lack of options due to the injury to Chris Gayle, his dismissal for just one in the second innings - caught behind off first innings destroyer Tyron Henderson - suggests that the selectors will at least be contemplating others capable of opening with Daren Ganga.
Dwayne Smith, coming in after Hinds' swift demise, stroked seven imperious boundaries in 31 while Carlton Baugh sped to 30 at almost a run-a-ball. However both fell to the left-arm spin of Pieter Strydom when they should have gone on to greater things.
It was Strydom, who played three Tests almost three years ago, who offered the greatest defiance to Sanford and company with a polished top score of 74. Nine fours and three sixes embellished his 129-minute innings, the greatest sufferer being left-arm wrist-spinner Dave Mohammed, who conceded 89 runs off 17 overs though he accounted for Strydom and Charl Langeveldt near the end of the innings to finish with three wickets.
Sanford was not to be denied the ‘fiver’ however, inducing an edge off Henderson's bat to Baugh to complete a satisfying day for the man with the Carib ancestry.
The Dominican-born Antiguan resident snared three wickets in the space of two overs on the second morning to reduce Border to 103 for five. Steven Pope was leg-before on the back foot, skipper Justin Kreusch edged a forcing back-foot shot to Brian Lara at slip and Laden Gamiet prodded a catch to Smith at short-leg second ball.
But with Sanford running out of gas on another scorching day and Fidel Edwards not used at all, the hosts were able to recover, thanks in the main to an 81-run seventh-wicket partnership between Strydom and wicketkeeper-batsman Abongile Sodumo.
Their stroke-filled stand, though finally broken by a diving catch at square-leg by Hinds as Sodumo pulled Drakes' first delivery of a new spell, underscored a well-known West Indian deficiency in finishing off the job.
WEST INDIES first innings 278 (S.Chanderpaul 98, B.Lara 81; T.Henderson 5-57)
BORDER first innings (o/n 68-2)
M.Bruyns b Sanford 26
M.Smith c Sarwan b Mohammed 32
S.Pope lbw b Sanford 28
J.Kreusch c Lara b Sanford 8
P.Strydom c Smith b Mohammed 74
L.Gamiet c Smith b Sanford 0
B.de Wett c Chanderpaul b Drakes 23
A.Sodumo c Hinds b Drakes 25
T.Henderson c Baugh b Sanford 17
C.Langeveldt lbw b Mohammed 5
A.Pringle not out 0
Extras: (b-4, lb-1, w-1, nb-7) 13
Total: (all out, 60.4 overs) 251
Fall of wickets: 1-45, 2-68, 3-100, 4-103, 5-103, 6-143, 7-224, 8-238, 9-249.