Lowly Windies get record with shameless display
- Tourists 54 all out is their lowest total in 31 years of One-Day cricket
By Tony Cozier In CAPE TOWN
Stabroek News
January 26, 2004
"THIS is as low as it can get, really," Brian Lara was moved to observe at the presentation ceremony following yet another crushing West Indies' defeat here last night.
The captain, whose turbulent career has fluctuated between the best and the worst of times, was both statistically and psychologically correct.
His team's all-out 54, off 23.2 overs, under the floodlights at Newlands in the first of the five one-day internationals against South Africa, was the West Indies' lowest total in the 31 years since they have played the shortened form of the game.
It was 33 fewer than the 87 mustered against Australia on a lively pitch in Sydney in the 1992/93 season.
The margin of the loss, by 209 runs, was 71 more than that inflicted by Pakistan in Sharjah that had stood for four years as the most comprehensive they had ever sustained.
These are the shameful details that now enter the record books.
Following, as it does, the 3-0 drubbing in the Test series, there are other, more obviously emotional repercussions to the latest "devastating failure", to borrow the phrase used by the captain at another especially difficult time.
It further undermines the self-esteem of the talented young players Lara now has under him and diminishes the proud image of West Indies cricket as a whole.
Above all, it has once more set off the alarm bells that have long since been ringing to alert the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) to the obvious crisis that it must urgently address before the situation hits a new rock bottom.
After the Test series ended on Tuesday, Lara cited his team's failure to handle pressure as one of the principal reasons for the loss.
Once more, they buckled at the first sign of it yesterday and could not pull themselves together again.
They bowled such a controlled line and length, and to the fields they were given, over the first half of the South African innings that they contained them to 101 for four after 26.2 overs when captain Graeme Smith and Boeta Dippenaar fell in successive overs.
They held the balance when Ricardo Powell was needlessly introduced to trundle his infrequent off-spin at 113 after 31 overs with Herschelle Gibbs, Robin Peterson, the left-handed pinch-hitter at No.3, Smith and Dippenaar out.
It quickly changed.
Jacques Kallis, plunderer of a hundred in each of the four Tests was still in, biding his time after taking 11 balls over his first run.
Suddenly, he hoiked Powell over midwicket for the first of his five sixes and the other Jacques, the left-handed Rudolph, cut him for a couple of fours.
As Powell was taken for 24 from three overs, the tempo changed and it got progressively more upbeat after that.
Kallis amassed another hundred, an unbeaten 109 off 94 balls with five sixes and six fours, in a commanding total of 263 for four so that the dangerous Lance Klusener, returning to the team after a controversial exile since the World Cup, was not even required.
He made his presence felt later with the ball.
Kallis added 162 off the last 23.4 overs of the innings with Rudolph, who was 61 from 76 balls with seven fours at the end.
When Merv Dillon was brought back after 40 overs, at 168 for four, his first over went for 14.
Off-spinner Ryan Hurley's next over was taken for nine, spoiling an excellent spell that included the wicket of Smith, deceived and bowled by a faster straight one.
The most telling blows were off Vasbert Drakes, a bowler of vast experience.
With five overs remaining and already 210 on the electronic scoreboard, Kallis sent him sailing into the stand adjacent to the nearby railway station at mid-wicket for sixes off successive balls.
He took a couple more fours to mid-wicket and, along with two no-balls, counted 21 off the over.
Strong and ruthless, Kallis clattered his other two sixes off Corey Collymore and Chris Gayle, both leg-side.
Newlands is Kallis' home, where he plays domestic cricket for Western Province, and a capacity crowd of 20,000, as much as his teammates, delighted in his blitz. But they were sold short of the night's entertainment they had paid to see by the West Indies' capitulation.
When the West Indies went after their target, the white ball began to dart around off the pitch and batting was not a comfortable business. But it was not so difficult as to justify such a feeble effort.
Drives by Chris Gayle and Shivnarine Chanderpaul were plucked out of the air at mid-off and mid-on.
Lara and Ramnaresh Sarwan were LBW in identical fashion to their second innings of the fourth Test and Powell, Dwayne Smith, Hurley, Drakes and Dillon were all caught from various parts of the outside edge.
As usual, the South Africans' effort was intense and their fielding impeccable and occasionally sensational.
No ball was midfielded, no catch missed - and there has been none better all tour than Gibbs' left-handed snare at back-square that accounted for Drakes off Makhaya Ntini.
Lara had fallen to Andre Nel five times in the Tests. He did again, harshly given LBW by umpire Ian Howell offering no shot to ball that hit him at the top of the pad.
Nel also accounted for Chanderpaul, Ntini claimed Sarwan going back and across and no batsman from No.5 down batted as if he had ever seen a moving ball in his life.
Powell launched his obligatory six, over long-leg off Klusener who promptly removed him as well as Smith and Hurley with balls that moved away.
As the last seven wickets crumbled for 16 from 9.4 overs, hundreds were streaming out of the ground. They came expecting their team to win but, with memories of last February's thrilling World Cup opener, never anticipated such a limp West Indies effort.