Rain, No Play

The Windies have lost 4 matches on the trot to South Africa following today's 6 wicket loss in the first One Day International between the sides. This follows a tight 4 wicket loss on Friday in the second and final Twenty20 international in which South Africa successfully got 30 runs off the final 3 overs to chase a modest target 131. The earlier Twenty20, won by the West Indies, was played before the Test series in December. (Talk about a strange schedule). The next ODI in the 5 match series is set for January 25.  read more »

South Africa have taken firm control of the second Test in Cape Town after taking a 78 run first innings lead and then reducing the Windies to 96/4 at stumps on Day 3. The Windies were hindered in their quest to claim a winning 2-0 series lead by key injuries. On yesterday's day 2, the Windies lost pacer Fidel Edwards due to a hamstring strain in his fifth over. Without Edwards, captain Chris Gayle had to rely on spinners Rawle Lewis and Marlon Samuels to complete the second day's overs after South Africa had been reduced to 131/5 in their first innings. Dwayne Bravo picked up some of the slack with an inspired spell, finishing with figures of 4-82 off 37 tight overs, but Ashwell Prince (98) and Mark Boucher (59) led South Africa to 321 for their 78 run lead. One wonders if the Windies had the raw pace of Edwards if they would have been able to finish off South Africa after they were pinned at 131/5.  read more »

As promised. Video of the final minutes of last week's historic Test win against South Africa.

   

   

Other highlight videos of the First Test between South africa and the Windies are available here.

South Africa fought back today to grab the advantage from the Windies on the first day of the second Test at Cape Town. Electing to bat, several Windies batsmen got starts but none so far has carried on to make the big scores necessary to post a formidable total. At stumps the Windies were 240/8. Half way through the day's play things looked promising for the Windies with Marlon Samuels (51) and Shiv Chanderpaul (64n.o.) in the middle of a 106 run fourth wicket stand. However a quick double strike by Makhaya Ntini (2-63) removed Samuels and Dwayne Bravo at 183/4 and 185/5 respectively. A 35-run 6th wicket partnership between Denesh Ramdin (21) and Chanderpaul raised hopes that the pair would bat until the close of play, but 3 quick wickets by Dale Steyn (4-60) at the end of the third session assured that South Africa had the better of the first day's play.  read more »

1994/1995 in New Zealand. The West Indies were still kings of the cricket world having not lost a Test series for almost 15 years. The Australian juggernaut had yet to emerge as Australia were quietly plotting how they could dethrone the undisputed World Champions. Little did we know that the 1-0 series win in New Zealand would be the last time the Windies won a meaningful Test series away from home. (Sure they beat Zimbabwe 1-0 in 2003/2004, Bangladesh 2-0 in 2002/2003 and Zimbabwe again 1-0 in 2001, but those don't really count, do they?). In fact, New Zealand weren't highly fancied back then so really the last time the Windies won an away Test series against big time Test opposition would be back in 1992/1993 when the Windies beat Australia 2-1, which included the nail-biting 1 run victory for the Windies in the third Test with the Windies already down 1-0 and only 1 match to come.  read more »

image from Cricinfo.

May 29, 2005. That was the last time the West Indies cricket team celebrated a Test victory. 2 years and 7 months later they get to do so again. Finally, at long last, the Windies have won! In clobbering South Africa by 128 runs, the Windies have also notched their first ever Test victory in South Africa and their first Test win away from home since beating Zimbabwe in November 2003 as well as their first away Test victory against meaningful opposition (sorry Bangladesh and Zimbabwe) since beating England in June 2000. This was also the first ever Test victory for Dwayne Bravo (in his 24th match), Denesh Ramdin, Runako Morton and Darren Sammy.  read more »

A look at the Windies' drought in Test matches:

Time since last Test win - 2 years 7 months (May 29, 2005 vs Pakistan)

Time since last away Test win - 4 years 1 month 13 days (Nov 16, 2003 vs Zimbabwe)

Time since last away Test win against meaningful competition (excl Zimbabwe and Bangladesh) - 7 years 6 months 12 days (Jun 17, 2000 vs England)

*Windies need only 2 more wickets to break the drought with SA 237/8 chasing 389.

With South Africa 138/4 chasing 389 (at tea on the fourth day's play), could we possibly be looking at history? If so, you'll want to look back at these highlights of the first two days of the Test match. I'll add any clips of victory celebrations I find later. (Thanks to World Cup on ULynkx)

     read more »

Day 1 - Part 1

The West Indies took firm control of the first Test match against South Africa today, but gave South Africa a fighting chance with the familiar 'calypso collapso' in the third session of the day's play.

With South Africa resuming on 122/5, the Windies got the early breakthrough that they needed when Jerome Taylor removed Mark Boucher at 129/6. AB deVilliers (59) and Paul Harris (9) staged a mini fightback and took the score to 172 before Dwayne Bravo bowled deVilliers. Bravo then cleaned up the tail to finish with figures of 4-24 from 13 tight overs.  read more »

Shivnarine Chanderpaul(104) did today what Marlon Samuels and Chris Gayle failed to do yesterday...convert his half-century into a ton. In notching up his 17th Test century, Chanderpaul guided the Windies to a very respectable first innings score of 408. After losing overnight partner Dwayne Bravo (12) and wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin (1) early on, Chanderpaul received good support from Darren Sammy(38) as the Windies put Dale Steyn (2 - 121) and Makhaya Ntini to the sword, in compiling their challenging total. When Chanderpaul passed 50, he tied the world record for most successive fifties, this being his seventh in consecutive innings dating back to his virtuoso performance in England of this year.  read more »