South African pace bowler Makhaya Ntini stormed to his third five wicket haul of the series on Sunday as the West Indies’ chances of saving the fourth cricket Test at Centurion nose-dived.
At stumps on the third day, the West Indies had stuttered to 44 for two in their second innings after being forced to follow on.
They require a further 260 runs to make South Africa bat again.
Ntini grabbed five for 49 and Andre Nel three for 64 as the Windies were dismissed for 301 — 104 runs shy of avoiding the follow-on and 303 runs behind the first innings tally of 604 for six declared.
When Ntini castled Daren Ganga for a duck in the second innings, he took his series tally to 27 wickets, one better than the previous South African record for a four match series. Mike Procter claimed 26 wickets against Australia in 1969/70 at a remarkable average of 13,57 runs.
Before dismissing Ganga, Ntini felled Chris Gayle with a delivery that cut back sharply to strike his box. A few overs later, the clearly distressed Gayle was forced to leave the field.
In the first innings, Gayle overcame an uncharacteristically slow start to top score with 77.
Gayle put on 102 for the third wicket with Brian Lara after Ntini had accounted for Daren Ganga and Ramnaresh Sarwan to claim his 150th Test wicket.
The revival sparked by Gayle and Lara was cut short by the newly married Nel.
Nel, who tied the knot on Saturday evening after the second day’s play, returned after an expensive opening spell to have Lara caught behind for 34 — the fourth occasion the Windies skipper has fallen to Nel this series. That tally rose to five after Nel trapped him in front for six in the second innings.
After Nel had rid the South Africans of the tourists’ most potent weapon, the Windies failed to mount any further partnerships of substance in the first innings.
Dwayne Smith, who smashed a century at better than a run a ball at Newlands, did however show some grit in the middle of the order.
The 20 year old Smith blazed 39 runs before Jacques Kallis had him caught behind.
Remarkably, Smith ran just one single in his innings, hitting eight fours and a six.
Kallis had earlier failed to get a hand to a Smith nick when he had 9. – Sapa