So easy for Proteas

If there was any indication that the West Indies were in East London in body rather than soul and mind, it was in their thoroughly dispiriting nine-wicket defeat by South Africa yesterday.

There are times when teams play possum and roll over against better opposition, but the West Indies were in no mood to hang around and defend their wickets valiantly and manfully, as their total of 122 suggested.

In what were easy batting conditions, despite the thickish clouds that blew in from the nearby Indian Ocean, a disciplined effort would have given South Africa a challenging total to chase.

However, the West Indies only managed to bat for 33.4 overs, as their generosity made life easy for the Proteas. The West Indies have regularly dished up insipid performances, but this one went against their coach Stuart Williams' call for a better fight after Sunday's thrashing.

This was a bout that was called off before it even began as only six batsmen got into double figures, with Marlon Samuels' 26 being the highest.

Only the technically deficient Dwayne Smith could consider himself unlucky, as a Vernon Philander leg cutter exposed his well-known offstump weakness.

Chris Gayle, maybe thinking in the mould of an Ottis Gibson, chanced his arm too early and was gone very early, giving AB de Villiers his second catch of the game without doing much.

The West Indian firepower had gone pop-gun in the space of 22 balls and with only six runs on the board, the West Indian spine, or whatever of it was left, was tasked with rebuilding a listing innings.

The dismissals of Narsingh Deonarine, Samuels and Denesh Ramdin gave an indication of how much the West Indies actually cared about being on the field.

Deonarine's wild Chinese cut off Steyn stung Hashim Amla's palms, but he was able to parry the ball to De Villiers, while Samuels tried to hit Imran Tahir into Bunkers Hill, only succeeding in finding Rilee Rossouw at long off.

Ramdin was limp in his attempt to glide Dale Steyn to third man, chopping onto his stumps in the process.

The fact that a batsman of Ramdin's average ability was batting at number five showed how thin the West Indian batting stocks were.

At 52/5 in the 17th over, the game was over as a contest. Fortunately, a modicum of resistance was shown by a normally flimsy tail, which gave those who knocked off at 4pm just enough time to get to the ground, even though the innings folded at 4.11pm.

There was enough time for Amla to stroll to a 55-ball 50 as South Africa's leisurely chase allowed the weak floodlights to partially kick in. Faf du Plessis also helped himself to a 69-ball 50 as he eased himself back into form as the rain set in.