Reuters
West Indies' Marlon Samuels is clean bowled by Dale Steyn for 40 on the third day of the first Test cricket match against South Africa in Port Elizabeth yesterday.

PORT ELIZABETH, South Africa

(CMC):

Like a recovering alcoholic battling desperately to kick his unhealthy habit, the West Indies played with determination, discipline and confidence for most of the first three days of the first Test against South Africa, only to return to the bad old ways in the final hour yesterday.

Cruising along at 122 for two after taking a 213-run first innings lead, the West Indies lost six wickets for 22 runs late in the day to end at 146 for eight, a collapse that gave the hosts a slim opportunity of forcing a victory that seemed completely out of the question until those fateful 60 minutes.

Triggered a slide

Having declined to enforce the follow-on, the tourists were well on their way to playing the home side completely out of the match in their second turn at the crease with Daren Ganga and Marlon Samuels (40) meandering serenely along in a partnership of 65 for the third wicket.

But when Ganga contributed to his own demise via the run out route for 45, it triggered a slide that saw the West Indies losing six wickets for 22 runs - the last four crashing for just three runs - to be staggering at the close.

With an overall lead of 359 runs on a ground where the highest successful fourth innings run-chase in Tests was 270 by Australia a decade ago, Chris Gayle's men still hold the advantage going into the fourth day.

However their nightmarish hour of madness had resulted in a significant momentum shift with the previously glum South Africans firmly believing that they were capable of chasing a target of less than 400 in the five or more sessions that would be available to them should they claim the last two West Indian wickets swiftly on Saturday morning.

Different mood

The mood was so very different at the start of the third day with the visitors continuing from where they left off the previous evening.

Jerome Taylor removed the pugnacious Mark Boucher to an excellent running catch by Daren Powell at long leg in the third over and, following a stubborn seventh-wicket partnership between AB de Villiers and Paul Harris, Dwayne Bravo swept the last four wickets aside at a personal cost of just six runs in a decisive spell either side of the lunch interval to dismiss South Africa for just 195.

Nominal resistance

Bravo's purple patch started with the wicket of de Villiers as the right-hander lost his off-stump for a top score of 59. Harris, who had held firm with his senior partner for almost an hour and a half in a 48-run stand, then fell to an ambitious off-drive, giving a simple catch to Taylor at mid-off.

The last two wickets offered only nominal resistance after the resumption with Andre Nel flicking an equally straightforward catch to Ganga at mid-on and Powell again showing good judgment running off the long leg boundary to catch Dale Steyn's miscued hook.

Bravo finished with four with 24, while pacers Powell and Taylor finished with three wickets apiece.

WEST INDIES 1st Innings 408

SOUTH AFRICA 1st Innings

(overnight 122 for five)

G. Smith lbw b Taylor