West Indies captain Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Dwayne Bravo completed hundreds here on Tuesday that established a new Test record of eight centuries in a match on the last day of the fourth and final Test against South Africa.
The match ended in a tame draw on Tuesday, giving the tourists a 2-0 series win.
Chanderpaul scored 127 and Bravo made 107 in a West Indies first innings total of 747.
The previous record had been seven. Three previous Tests had produced that many hundreds — England and Australia at Trent Bridge in 1938, West Indies and Australia at Kingston in 1955, and last year’s Test between the South Africans and West Indies at Cape Town.
For a moment, the record had overshadowed the fact that South Africa had won the four-Test series 2-0 and reclaimed the Sir Vivian Richards Trophy, symbol of supremacy between the two teams.
They won the second Test at Port of Spain by eight wickets, and the third Test at Bridgetown by an innings and 86 runs. The first Test at Georgetown ended in a draw.
At one stage towards the end, Boeta Dippenaar, in particular, and Graeme Smith, the South Africa captain, looked like they wanted to add to the new record, but finished unbeaten on 56 and 50 respectively, as South Africa, trailing West Indies by 159 runs on first innings, ended the match on 129 for one in their second
innings.
Dippenaar struck seven fours and two sixes from 101 balls in a little under two and a quarter hours, and Smith, who was later named man-of-the-series, smote seven fours from 87 balls in just over two and a quarter hours and finished the series with 505 runs.
South Africa suffered an early setback batting a second time, when Tino Best claimed the wicket of Abraham de Villiers caught at mid-on for 12 mistiming a pull, but Smith and Dippenaar soon short-circuited any ideas of an exciting finish.
Before lunch, Chanderpaul had completed his record-equalling 13th Test hundred as he flicked Shaun Pollock through backward square leg for three to reach his milestone.
Chanderpaul enjoyed a bit of good fortune before his dismissal.
On 121, he edged at a delivery from Smith and Jacques Kallis muffed a sharp chance at slip.
The breakthrough came however, when Chanderpaul was run out going for a third run, and was beaten by Pollock’s direct hit at the bowler’s end from long-on.
Courtney Browne, under pressure to produce with the bat to compensate for his poor work with the wicketkeeping gloves, was the other wicket for South Africa in the morning period, when he was adjudged lbw for zero in the next over when he was struck on the boot by a full pitch from Smith.
After lunch, Bravo, with whom Chanderpaul added 130 for the sixth wicket, needed 32 more runs for his landmark hundred, when the West Indies continued from their interval position of 690 for seven.
The all-rounder, who has promised much with the bat, but has delivered very little in his seven Tests, reached the milestone with the 12th of his 13 boundaries to third man off de Villiers when he sliced his favourite backfoot drive.
For close to an hour, Washington defied the South African attack to make sure that Bravo could reach the landmark, after de Villiers removed Daren Powell for 12 and Best for five to leave West Indies 712 for nine.
Powell was bowled driving loosely at an in-swinging yorker, and Best was caught at mid-wicket when he recklessly top-edged a pull at a shortish delivery.
Twice South Africa came close to denying Bravo.
First, they thought they had Washington caught behind off Monde Zondeki before he had scored, but twitchy umpire Billy Bowden ruled the ball had brushed the batsman’s forearm.
Then, Bravo, on 94, stole the strike off the last ball of the same over, when he played a delivery from Zondeki straight to Dippenaar, who missed a chance to run out Washington at the wicketkeeper’s end.
Next over, Bravo, to the delight of the crowd, reached his landmark, but substitute fielder Jacques Rudolph at mid-wicket again muffed a chance to bring the innings to a close when he failed to hold a chance from the West Indies all-rounder, on 101,
off Dippenaar.
In the search for the breakthrough, Smith gave every player in the side a bowl, including wicketkeeper Mark Boucher, who finally claimed Bravo when he was caught at mid-off driving his 235th ball after batting for four and a half hours.
It was the second time in the last four Tests at the Antigua Recreation Ground that a captain had used every player in his side to bowl. Three years ago, India’s Sourav Ganguly was the unfortunate captain in a West Indies first innings total of 629 for nine declared.
Zondeki was South Africa’s most successful bowler with three wickets for 120 runs from 25 overs, Smith took two for 145 from 43 overs, and de Villiers two for 49 from 21 overs.
Predictably, Chris Gayle was named man-of-the-match for his triple hundred. – Sapa-AP