Tony Becca

The Test section of the West Indies tour to South Africa is over and as expected, the number eight in the world lost to the number two in the three-match contest.

What was not expected, however, was the scoreline.

Following the 5-0 thrashing in 1998-99 and the 3-0 defeat in 2003-04 which led to South Africa's record of eight wins and one draw in the nine Test matches in two series at home against the West Indies, many expected a 3-0 thumping.

In a memorable surprise, however, the West Indies ambushed South Africa in Port Elizabeth and won the first Test by 128 runs inside four days.

As was expected, however, and despite the margin of victory, the West Indies, who were simply not as good as South Africa, failed to follow through and were soundly beaten in Cape Town and in Durban to lose the series 1-2.

Going into the final Test match with the count locked at one-one, they were a few people who were talking about a West Indies victory - a victory that would hand them the series.

They must have been joking, however, and for one simple reason.

While a team that included a fit Christopher Gayle had a chance - a slim one at that and because of his explosive batting, a team that paraded a batting line-up of Daren Ganga, Brenton Parchment, Runako Morton, Marlon Samuels, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Dwayne Bravo, a team in which four of their first six batsmen "boasting" batting averages of 25.71, 23.81, 27.30, 34.24 before the start of the series and a fifth, going in at number two in the batting order, playing in his first Test match, and averaging 27.56 in first-class cricket, had no chance whatsoever.

No chance

They certainly had no chance against pace bowlers like Dale Steyn, Makhaya Ntini, Andre Nel and the old warrior, Shaun Pollock, and definitely so, not in the conditions in which the South African bowlers operated on the opening day.

On top of that, as good as it was in the first three innings of the series, the West Indies bowling was without Bravo - who was nursing an injury, and, for all intents and purpose, it was also without Fidel Edwards who was recovering from an injury.

In other words, with only Daren Powell and Jerome Taylor, Daren Sammy and part-time off-spinner Marlon Samuels fully fit, the West Indies attack, facing a batting line-up that included the likes of Graeme Smith, Herschelle Gibbs, Jacques Kallis, Ashwell Prince, A. B. deVilliers and Mark Boucher, was up against it.

With their batsmen batting as if they had never seen a ball swing before, the West Indies were dismissed shortly after lunch on the opening day and with South Africa racing to 556 for four declared off 120 overs, the Test match, the showdown, the shoot-out, whatever it was called going into the match, was over in three days.

After the wonderful start, the series, therefore, ended in somewhat of a disappointment - and especially so to those who were dreaming.

Lack of skill

Samuels - REUTERS

To others, however, and despite the failure, once again, of batsmen like Ganga and Devon Smith, despite the revelation, once again, that Morton is short of skill against a delivery that does anything through the air or off the pitch and is certainly not a number three batsman, an right-arm leg-spinner Rawl Lewis took three wickets for 68 runs while bowling 20.4 overs in one match and finishing with an average of 22.66, despite, once again, the lack of faith in spin bowlers, there were some pluses for the West Indies.

The pluses included the wonderful fighting spirit that was demonstrated throughout, al-though they fell away in the second innings of the second Test and more so in the third Test; the consistency of Taylor and Powell; the pace of Edwards; and also, and definitely so in the first and second Test matches, the consistent brilliance of the fielders.

The number one plus, however, was the batting of Samuels.

One of, if not the most gifted batsman to have entered West Indies cricket since the coming of Brian Lara, Samuels' career has suffered because of his attitude - an attitude that does not endear him to the fans and to his team-mates, an attitude, an easy-going approach which gives the impression that he does not work hard enough, an attitude, based on some strokes attempted early in his innings, which suggests that he does not value his wicket, and an attitude which left him, a specialist batsman, with one Test century and a batting average below 30 before the series started.

Samuels, however, has always said that somebody up there does not like him. In recent times, he has always said that he would love to bat high up the order. In manager Clive Lloyd, he had some one in South Africa who likes him, in captain Chris Gayle he had some one else who likes him and who he likes, in South Africa he batted every time at number four, and to the satisfaction of every one, to the delight of all his fans, this time around he buckled down, he batted like a specialist batsman should bat, he looked at the bowling and the conditions, and he protected his wicket until, after seeing the ball as big as the proverbial breadfruit, he went for his strokes.

Good average

In his six innings in South Africa, Samuels, going to bat with the West Indies in trouble almost every time, reeled off scores of 94 and 40, 51 and 18, 6 and 105 for a total of 314 runs at an average of 52.33.

More importantly, however, or rather, just as importantly, as one of the top batsmen on the team, with his team depending on him to perform, he batted for 267 minutes and faced 195 deliveries in the first innings of the first Test and for 120 minutes and 87 deliveries in the second innings, for 204 minutes and 144 deliveries in the first innings of the second Test and 85 minutes and 51 deliveries in the second innings, and for 16 minutes and seven deliveries in the first innings of the third Test and for 280 minutes and 190 deliveries in the second innings.

In other words, in three Test matches, Samuels batted for 972 minutes, he faced 674 deliveries and that, in any language, was good batting.

Hopefully, this is the beginning of a new Samuels - of a batsman now ready to fulfil his early promise and to do justice to his talent.