SA WI T1 Days 3 & 4: Morkel, Dale Push Windies on Road to Humiliation; Register Big Win

The threat of rain loomed. But the threat of being humiliated loomed far more for the West Indies who were brought to their knees after losing the first Test against South Africa at the Queen's Park Oval, Port of Spain, Trinidad.

dale steyn

South Africa's perseverance with the bat paid off after the first couple of days because once the ball landed in the hands of the fast bowlers, the South African captain, Graeme Smith, struggled to wrest the ball back from them.

morne morkel 1

It meant the West Indies suffered a tragedy of a first innings when Morne Morkel and Dale Steyn ran riot with their line up. Only three men managed scores in double digits, the highest being twenty-nine by Narsingh Deonarine, followed by Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Dinesh Ramdin. What stood out from the innings was Morne Morkel taking his job a notch higher, wrecking the hosts' line up with precision even as the Windies contributed to their own downfall as much as the South African bowlers did. Dale Steyn joined the feast as well and with the task of South Africa's innings of 352 on hand, the West Indies failed to cope with the pressure and succumbed without even a semblance of a fight.

Steyn got a five-for for his efforts while Morkel was rewarded with four. But with West Indies significantly behind by 250 runs and the threat of rain looming, the decision not to enforce the follow seemed like one that could go either way for Smith and his men.

graeme smith v wi

But Smith himself contributed ninety runs towards adding to the lead even as Jacques Kallis was the next best on forty as South Africa raised 206/4 after sixty-two overs at which point they declared to leave the hosts chasing a daunting total of 457 for a win.

If the West Indies put up a better total in the second innings, it was largely due to their captain, Chris Gayle, who defied the visitors with seventy-three runs innings. But thereafter, the effort by Dwayne Bravo for forty-nine runs seemed merely to delay the inevitable. South Africa were tormented a little by the tail, where Sulieman Benn made forty-two runs even as debutant Shane Shillingford made himself a bit of a nuisance with the bat for twenty-seven runs.

Even though drops of rain caused concern amongst the ground staff towards the closing stages of the fourth day's play, South Africa managed to complete the formalities with Steyn leading the way once again with three wickets.

South Africa wrapped up the match with a win over the hosts by 163 runs with two Tests to go.

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