Smith and Gibbs destroy demoralised West Indies
South Africa 302 for 1 (Smith 139, Gibbs 139*) v West Indies
Scorecard
Graeme Smith and Herschelle Gibbs celebrate – they put on 301 for the first wicket with Smith out for 139 two balls before the close © AFP |
Graeme Smith and Herschelle Gibbs powered their way to a record opening stand for South Africa at Centurion Park on a shortened opening day of the fourth Test. After Brian Lara won the toss and put South Africa in, Smith and Gibbs both scored centuries and made West Indies pay for some more wayward bowling and shoddy fielding. South Africa closed at a dominating 302 for 1 when bad light stopped play.What has gone before in a one-sided series was nothing to compare with the level of the slaughter today. The bowling was toothless, the fielding tired, but the batting was almost faultless. After a morning seeing off the new ball on a damp track, Smith and Gibbs cut loose, smashing the hapless attack to all parts of the sparsely populated ground, and keeping the run rate up to five an over.Smith was the more aggressive of the two, racing to his sixth Test century from 125 balls, including 17 fours and a six. He played a host of sublime shots, most of which pierced the leg-side field. He had only one blemish, when, on 23, he should have been run out by Ramnaresh Sarwan, but was reprieved by bad fielding. Gibbs, meanwhile, opened up after a subdued start, and he reached his 13th Test hundred on the way to an unbeaten 139.Play was delayed by half an hour after heavy overnight rain, and the tone of the day was set with the first ball of the match – a wide long-hop from Merv Dillon, which Smith slashed over the slips for four. Gibbs was temporarily in a spot of bother when Dillon managed to apply some pressure for all of an over, but Gibbs soon helped himself to some erratic bowling from Fidel Edwards at the other end.Smith signalled the fifty partnership with a handsome cover-drive off Dillon, and 10 fours had come in the first 11 overs – not exactly what Lara would have hoped for after he won the toss. The Smith run-out chance, which happened shortly before the lunch break, was in fact the only time West Indies came close to making a breakthrough, but that was wasted – and in comical fashion.Smith pushed Vasbert Drakes to Sarwan at point and set off for a suicidal run, but Gibbs sent him back. Smith was halfway down the track and Sarwan had all the time in the world to take aim and fire. Instead, he chose to pick the ball up and get closer to the stumps. After a few strides, though, he belly-flopped forward and looped the ball way over the target. Smith couldn’t believe his luck – and he made the most of it.Just as West Indies were beginning to assert some control, Smith bulldozed Drakes for three fours in same over, all on the leg side, to put South Africa back on track to domination. And it didn’t stop there. Corey Collymore was next in Smith’s firing line. He was peppered to different parts of the leg-side boundary, and Lara was forced to turn to Chris Gayle for a wind of change. Gayle promptly served up a floating full-toss, which Smith smacked away with disdain on the way to his hundred.
Rare blemish: Graeme Smith scrambles home as Ramnaresh Sarwan fluffs a run-out chance © Getty Images |
Gibbs, meanwhile, was more watchful. He took 116 balls to reach his half-century, but he did it in style with a back-foot thump through the covers off another Edwards short ball. He then smeared Gayle over midwicket, later pulled Dillon for a huge six over deep mid-on, and eased to his hundred off a gentle Sarwan full-toss.Smith and Gibbs carried on the charge, continuing to punish anything short in particular, and they soon had their sights on beating their own record stand of 368 against Pakistan at Cape Town last year. However, Collymore spared West Indies that embarrassment when Smith edged him behind to Ridley Jacobs for an outstanding 139, including 21 fours and two sixes (301 for 1).Not long after Smith’s wicket, at 5.05pm local time, the umpires offered Gibbs and Jacques Rudolph the light with 22.5 overs to go – and, rather surprisingly, they accepted with South Africa in total control of a completely one-sided contest.