An ugly confrontation between Jacques Kallis and Kemar Roach overshadowed a convincing seven-wicket victory for South Africa in the third and final Test against West Indies on Tuesday.
Chasing 47 for victory, the South Africans reached their target about 25 minutes before lunch on the fourth day at Kensington Oval, when AB de Villiers cut a short ball outside the off-stump from Roach through backward point for four.
The result meant that South Africa wrapped up a 2-0 series victory.
PHOTO: AFP
But drama unfolded between Kallis and Roach before the match came to a conclusion.
Kallis was nearly decapitated when a searing bouncer from Roach almost removed his helmet, and a long-distance, verbal exchange erupted between the two players.
It took the intervention of Shivnarine Chanderpaul to pull Roach away, and a few more West Indian players got involved to cool tempers.
Next delivery, the final of the over, Kallis received another bouncer from Roach that sailed over his head, and the two glared at each other. Kallis then walked past Roach to have a mid-pitch conference with Hashim Amla, and the confrontation heightened with arm-waving, and shouting, prompting Australian umpires Steve Davis and Simon Taufel to intervene. Things settled down after Davis and Taufel had a long chat with West Indies captain Chris Gayle.
Roach had bowled with pace and hostility to snare all three South African scalps that fell before the visitors completed victory.
He had Graeme Smith caught at mid-wicket for 10 after he had also struck him on the helmet, bowled Alviro Petersen off the inside edge for six, and had Amla caught at gully for 25 with two runs needed. Afterwards, Kallis had to pursue Roach to shake his hand in the statutory end-of-the-game appreciation, and even then the two still seemed to carry on the fuming, with de Villiers this time stepping in to part them, and receiving an earful from the fast bowler.
Earlier, Morne Morkel wrapped up the West Indies innings in the first hour, when he ended with three for 33 from 14.1 overs.
Morkel bowled Sulieman Benn for nine, had Roach caught behind for eight, and Brandon Bess caught at second slip for a first-ball duck, leaving Shivnarine Chanderpaul unbeaten on 71.
Johan Botha was named Man of the Match for his match figures of seven for 102, and Dale Steyn was named Man of the Series for his 15 wickets at 18.13 runs apiece.
Steyn is to be investigated by match referee Jeff Crowe for allegedly spitting in the direction of West Indies spinner Benn.
The alleged incident took place as Steyn walked off after he had been dismissed in the morning session on Monday.
“We’ve had a discussion with the on-field umpires and the match referee and they will take this matter up to the next level if they have to,” Gayle told reporters.
He said the series had been played in good spirit before the final Test.
“It was brilliant leading up to this test match but things got out of hand. The series has been a wonderful one, it’s just unfortunate that at the end we had a bit of a boil up,” Gayle said.
■HOWARD BID FAILS
AFP, SINGAPORE
Former Australian prime minister John Howard’s bid to lead world cricket has been derailed, the International Cricket Council (ICC) said yesterday, after a revolt by Asian and African nations.
A statement from the ICC board at a meeting in Singapore said the right-wing politician’s nomination to serve as president of world cricket’s governing body had failed to muster enough backing.
“Following lengthy consideration it was recognized that the nomination [of Howard] put forward by Cricket Australia and New Zealand Cricket did not have sufficient support within the ICC board,” the ICC said in a statement.
“No vote was taken,” the statement said.
Opposition from Asian and African nations sealed the fate of Howard, 70, who has no experience in cricket administration and who clashed repeatedly with some of the countries opposed to his ICC bid when he was Australia’s premier.
“There was nothing personal against Howard,” a source in the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) said. “But we do accept the argument that only a man with previous experience in cricket administration should head the ICC. Howard was not involved with Cricket Australia at any time.”
Cricket Australia chairman Jack Clarke was “gutted” at the decision, and described Howard as being “extremely disappointed and extremely upset,” the Australian Associated Press reported.
Former BCCI chief Sharad Pawar, an Indian government minister who has served as ICC vice-president for the past two years, takes over from outgoing president David Morgan of England today.
Howard, who was Australia’s prime minister from 1996 to 2007, would have assumed the ICC vice presidency before assuming full leadership in mid-2012 under a system that rotates the job between cricket’s regional blocs.
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