JACQUES KALLIS did his best to save South Africa from defeat in the first Test at Port Elizabeth against West Indies after watching his teammates collapse like a pack of cards in the morning session.

In the end, his knock of 85 in a total of 260 was in vain as the tourists won by 128 runs. Kallis tried to make a contest of it for more than three hours before being caught by wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin off the bowling of Fidel Edwards. While Kallis, who struck nine boundaries, remained at the wicket, South Africa always had a chance, no matter how remote. It wasn’t meant to be like this, of course. The West Indies arrived in South Africa in their usual state of chaos and disorganisation and came into this series ahead of only Bangladesh in the Test rankings.

South Africa, on the other hand, are widely regarded as being the only side in world cricket with a realistic chance of replacing Australia as the best team on the planet. Not on this evidence. The reality is that it is West Indies who leave Port Elizabeth looking like the second best team in the world, while Graeme Smith’s side will need a vast improvement on this performance if they are to win this series.

The first surprise was that the tourists piled up 408 runs in their first innings, with Chris Gayle, Marlon Samuels and Shivnarine Chanderpaul all recording decent scores. Chanderpaul has developed into one of the best batsmen in the game, but he has too often had to shoulder all the responsibility. Here, he took 6½ hours to compile his 104, while Gayle smashed 66 off just 49 balls.

Dwayne Bravo, Daren Powell and Jerome Taylor then dismissed South Africa for 195 before the West Indies were bowled out for 175 the second time around.

It left South Africa with a victory target of 389, but from the moment Powell claimed the first wicket of the day by trapping Herschelle Gibbs leg before – for a pair – without the batsman offering a shot, there was only ever going to be one winner.

On a baking hot day, the West Indies attack looked sharp from the outset and reduced South Africa to 45 for three at lunch.

Fidel Edwards got in on the act by claiming the wickets of Hashim Amla and Smith. Amla got an outside edge to wicketkeeper Ramdin, having made eight, while Smith made just 11 before fending off a short delivery to Daren Ganga at short leg.

Kallis and Ashwell Prince saw South Africa through to the interval without further damage, but Gayle caught Prince for 10 off Taylor soon afterwards and at 45 for four it looked like the match would be all over before tea. But AB de Villiers joined Kallis and the pair made a nonsense of all that had gone before, putting on 112 before Kallis perished in the 50th over.

With Kallis gone, only De Villiers and Mark Boucher stood between West Indies and victory. De Villiers, who top-scored in the first innings with 59, knew it was a lost cause but was determined to go down fighting and quickly brought up his fifty.

When Boucher was bowled by Taylor for 13, the game was effectively over. Paul Harris fell to Bravo without troubling the scorers and De Villiers perished soon afterwards, having scored 60. Andre Nel and Dale Steyn provided plenty of entertainment as they put on a rapid 67 for the ninth wicket before Samuels wrapped it up when he had Makhaya Ntini caught.

The most impressive thing about the Windies bowlers has been their parsimony. In recent times they have conceded extras by the bucketload, but not here. Even when Kallis and De Villiers started to score more fluently, the tourists stood firm. It augurs well for the rest of the series.

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