Herschelle Gibbs batted out the final session of the first Test betweenthe West Indies and South Africa at the Bourda on Tuesday to ensure anhonourable draw for the tourists as they finished the final day on 142-2chasing an unlikely target of 306

MWP13-Mar-2001Herschelle Gibbs batted out the final session of the first Test betweenthe West Indies and South Africa at the Bourda on Tuesday to ensure anhonourable draw for the tourists as they finished the final day on 142-2chasing an unlikely target of 306 for victory.South Africa lost first innings hero Gary Kirsten and Jacques Kallis ontheir way, but the flattest pitch seen in the Caribbean for some time had thefinal say and the two sides will have to start all over again at the Queen’sPark Oval in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, beginning on Saturday.South Africa’s target had been set after Carl Hooper had prolonged theWest Indies second innings by 12 overs on the final morning, extending theirovernight 286-4 to 333-7 and stretching the lead beyond 300.Hooper became the first casualty of the day with an extraordinary shotthat saw him step so far outside his leg stump that he was able to cut aball from left arm spinner Nicky Boje that pitched six inches outside legstump itself. Sadly, his ingenuity led only to him picking out DaryllCullinan at backward point and he departed for 35.The 20-year-old Ramnaresh Sarwan battled desperately to reach his maidenTest century before Hooper’s declaration but, having advanced from 71 to 91,he turned a delivery from Boje behind square on the leg side and set off forwhat seemed a reasonable single.Gibbs pounced, swooped and gathered at impossible pace to return theball to ‘keeper Mark Boucher who removed the bails while Sarwan floundered inthe dust, diving desperately to regain his ground.It was a memorable innings, nonetheless, and although he won’t tellgrandchildren about it as much as he will the first century, it was surely acareer-shaping knock spanning 180 balls in just over three-and-a-half hoursat the crease.Ridley Jacobs, meanwhile, had belted 18 from just 15 balls in a muscularcameo until Nixon McLean arrived to replace Sarwan. McLean faced one ball,was trapped LBW by it and then walked off the field with the rest of theplayers as Hooper called the innings closed.Kirsten and Gibbs reached 27-0 at lunch and added 66 for the firstwicket when South Africa began their second reply, but it should not havebeen so. Gibbs, on two, edged a fast, bouncing delivery from Merv Dillon toHooper at second slip and the West Indian captain blotched an otherwiseimmaculate debut Test as captain by clanging a straighforward, head-highchance.Gibbs was also indebted for his survival to an outstanding performanceby local umpire Ed Nicholls in the final two sessions. Courtney Walsh andDillon both delivered superb off-cutters that raced between bat and pad,flicking something hard on the way to Jacobs. The appeals were morecelebratory than questioning but Nicholls remained unmoved. Televisionreplays, in slow motion, showed the ball to have flicked the thigh pad onboth occasions but Nicholls made his call first time, in real time.Kallis (30) was the last wicket of the match when an pacey inswinger from McLean thudded into his front pad and trapped him lbw for 30. Some umpires might have been put off by the movement, but once again replays seemed to showed that Nicholls had got it dead right.Gibbs meanwhile, finished on 83 from 215 balls ending a run of 11 Testinnings without a half century. It may be important for his tour, and SouthAfrica’s top order fortunes for the rest of the series.