Last chance saloon in St Kitts Print E-mail
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Written by Luke Tagg   
Thursday, 17 June 2010 17:43
Having lost their last eight games against the touring South Africans (two T20Is, five ODIs and the first Test) the West Indies have one last chance to salvage their miserable summer in the second Test, which begins in St Kitts on Friday.

Unless they can seriously up their game - or catch the Proteas fat on football - they will lose the Test series as well and be facing the rare prospect of losing every single game of a home tour.

Pakistan recently got whitewashed in Australia, but they were playing away from home and coked to the gills on politics and personalities. I imagine it's a pretty rare feat to get whitewashed in all three forms of cricket in a home series.

The bad news for the Windies is that it's going to be almost impossible for them to win the second Test. Warner Park Stadium in St Kitts has only hosted one Test ever - West Indies vs India in 2007 - which yielded 1,413 runs in a five-day draw.

If the track is as flat as that they can kiss all hope goodbye against South Africa's stern batting order. The best they can hope for is another draw and a shot in the final Test to level the series.

Despite getting thrashed by 163 runs inside four days in Port of Spain, the Windies have kept the exact same squad for the second Test. Kemar Roach may be fit to play, which would be a pace boost, but the other seamers were hopeless in the first Test, taking one wicket between them.

They can't exactly rely on their batting either - they were bowled out for 102 in the first innings and only Chris Gayle managed a half-century in their second. Shiv Chanderpaul has always been a sticky little mince pie, but the rest are nothing to write Mum about.

Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel are at the top of their game and there's plenty of room for improvement from Paul Harris. Plenty. Lonwabo Tsotsobe's miserly ways are a good frustrating tactic and Jacques Kallis has been bowling with more energy than I've seen from him in a while.

The South African batsmen had a good outing last time, with a welcome return to form for Ashwell Prince, Mark Boucher and Graeme Smith. The batting order looks a lot more solid than it has in recent times, especially now that Ash is back in his favoured slot and Alviro Petersen is partnering Smith.

The Proteas can now taste that series victory and are but one light Carib zephyr away from picking up the scent of a tour whitewash.

All of which adds up to a dull, throbbing headache for the West Indies as they seek to preserve their honour and restore some dignity.
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