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The West Indies once more carried their loyal and long-suffering supporters through the whole range of emotions on the final day of the third Test yesterday before finally having to resort to demeaning methods to save the match.

Seven wickets were down, 23 minutes left on the clock, only the fragile bowlers remained between South Africa and victory and the 5000 or so in the stands were willing Dinanath Ramnarine and Merv Dillon to hold on.

Suddenly and apparently, Ramnarine, who had earlier taken five wickets in South Africa's second innings, developed leg cramp or some hamstring problem.

After making his discomfort clearly obvious, he gained the permission of umpires Steve Bucknor and Darrell Hair to summon physiotherapist Ronald Rogers onto the ground for medical attention that lasted almost five minutes. Dillon took the chance to change his boots. When Ramnarine was suitably treated and play resumed, he continued to dilly-dally. Several times the experienced Bucknor urged him to move on and, eventually, issued him an official warning for time-wasting.

When he did face up, Ramnarine comfortably held out for 14 balls and Dillon 12 from the menacing left-arm spin of Nicky Boje and the medium-pace of Lance Klusener before South African captain Shaun Pollock abandoned his attempt at victory with only two balls left.

The reactions to the finale were understandably mixed.

On the face of it, the South Africans took it in good spirits. They, and others, might have wasted time themselves in a similar plight. But they would have been disappointed not to stretch their lead in the series to 2-0.

For West Indians with cricket close to their hearts, there was obvious relief at the draw but unease too that all of the fight their team had shown throughout an engrossing match should have come to such an ignominious end.

For the first hour, as the West Indian phenomenon of two spinners in tandem reduced South Africa to 97 for six in their second innings and an overall lead of 164, Kensington was smiling with optimistic thoughts of a remarkable victory.

South Africa were already three down for 52 at the start. By the first drinks break, Jacques Kallis had fallen to a short-leg catch prodding at Carl Hooper's off-break and Ramnarine had taken care of the left- handed Klusener, driving high to midoff, and wicket-keeper Mark Boucher who snicked a classic leg-break into Ridley Jacobs' gloves.

Over the next hour and 40 minutes, while the century-makers of the first innings, Darryl Cullinan and Pollock, made the match safe for South Africa, West Indian hope turned to resignation and disappointment.

It took the second new ball to separate the pair but, by then, the slim West Indian chances had evaporated.

Pollock edged his drive off Courtney Walsh to be snapped up by Hooper at second slip after playing solidly but the captain waited until Ramnarine accounted for Cullinan and Alan Donald with successive balls before he declared.

The classy Cullinan, with a couple of sixes and eight fours in 82, was closing in on his second hundred of the match, and third of the series, when Ramnarine removed him for the fourth time in, six innings. His crossbatted slog took the under-edge on its way to slip.

Ramnarine seemed to have had Cullinan on 49 to a wicket-keeper's catch but umpire Darrell Hair ruled that the leg-break had missed the bat.

When Ramnarine perplexed Donald first ball with a perfect googly, Pollock declared with nine wickets down.

The understandable feeling around the ground was that it provided the West Indies batsmen with two hours, 25 minutes of valuable match practice.

As Chris Gayle unleashed a volley of thumping boundaries, 11 of them in 48, the spectators prepared themselves for an entertaining climax to proceedings or, more to the point, those somehow immune to the unpredictably of West Indies cricket in recent years.

Once Hinds was Boje's first wicket, the innings folded with the haste that was so familiar in England and Australia in the two previous series but had seemingly been dispelled. Now seven wickets fell for 48 runs in 25.5 overs.

The inexperience of the four young batsmen was evident in the collapse. Hinds lifted Boje over midwicket one ball and, driving at the next, edged to slip.

Marlon Samuels also went to a slip catch, ondriving against the turn, while Gayle was outfoxed by Kallis.

The bustling all-rounder kept feeding the young left-hander on his strong off-side where he hit ten of his 11 boundaries. He then went round the wicket to find the edge of another extravagant drive.

Ramnaresh Sarwan replaced him, but overcaution was his undoing as he raised his bat to let one from Kallis hit off-stump, hard.

By now, the West Indies were 64 for four and their fate appeared to depend heavily on Brian Lara and Hooper.

When Boje dismissed the defending Hooper to a keeper's catch with 55 minutes remaining on the clock and first innings century-maker Ridley Jacobs 25 minutes later to one of the cluster of fielders around the bat, only Lara remained of the capable batsmen.

South African joy, on the field and in the dressing room, was unrestrained when Klusener went under the champion left-hander's bat with a yorker.

It gave them another 23 minutes to try to complete the job. But they only got in five more overs as Ramnarine and Dillon, with varying methods, kept them at bay and West Indians could stop chewing their nails and checking their heartbeats.

© The Barbados Nation