Morne Morkel served up a devastating spell of fast bowling as West Indies limped to 65/3 at lunch on the third day of the first Test against South Africa at the Queen’s Park Oval at Port of Spain in Trinidad on Saturday.
Morkel went to the break with figures of three for seven off seven overs after his new ball spell had ripped through the home side’s top-order to leave the Windies struggling on 12 for three.
The left-handed duo of Narsingh Deonarine and Shivnarine Chanderpaul then rescued their team’s innings with a gutsy unbroken fourth-wicket stand of 53 off 21.5 overs.
Earlier, half-centuries from Mark Boucher, AB de Villiers, and Ashwell Prince trumped a penetrative, marathon spell of spin bowling from Sulieman Benn to put South Africa in a favourable position in he opening Test against West Indies.
Boucher missed most of the preceding limited-overs matches, but he got his groove back in the top score of 69, de Villiers supported with 68, and Prince made 57, as the South Africans were dismissed for 352 in their first innings about 10 minutes before the scheduled close on the second day at Queen’s Park Oval yesterday.
Test newcomer Shane Shillingford supported Benn, when he collected 3/96 from 34 overs with his off-spin.
Scores: South Africa 352 in 129.4 overs (G. Smith 23, A. Petersen 31, J. Kallis 28, A. de Villiers 68, A. Prince 57, M. Boucher 69, D. Steyn 39, Benn 5/120, Shillingford 3/96) vs West Indies 65/3 in 33 overs (S. Chanderpaul 24 n,o, N. Deonarine 27 n.o, Morkel 3/7).