Chanderpaul: Batting to blame for defeat

South Africa completed a comprehensive eight-wicket win over the West Indies yesterday at the Queens Park Oval to take a 1-0 lead in the four-Test series.

The match was evenly balanced throughout the first three days but South Africa grabbed the advantage on the fourth day when the West Indies collapsed from 79 for one to 92 for five in the space of eight overs.

"I think we were doing pretty well into the third day and fourth day," Chanderpaul said in a post-match interview.

"We lost it a little bit yesterday evening with our batting. Earlier with our bowling, in line and length, we were not consistent enough but we were playing pretty good cricket."

He added: "The guys were doing well until the South African I think, played a little smarter than us and they stood up and stuck it out a little more than us."

West Indies were however rescued by a sixth wicket partnership of 88 between Ramnaresh Sarwan (107 not out) and Dwayne Bravo, who batted out the fourth day on Monday to take the score to 170, a lead of 119.

The Windies’ hope of setting South Africa a challenging total disappeared when Bravo went in the day’s fourth over for 33 with just ten runs added. Makhaya Ntini then quickly prised out the lower order as the West Indies were bowled out for 194, an hour before lunch.

"We wanted to bat on today after lunch, probably looking to declare and get South Africa into bat but we didn’t bat as well as we were expecting to," Chanderpaul lamented.

He added: "We have to go and work hard. Probably look at some tapes and see where we went wrong and take it from there."

The third Test of the Digicel Test series starts on April 21 at Kensington Oval in Barbados.