The 7th match of group B saw South Africa face the West Indies in Delhi. South Africa won the toss and elected to field first, deciding that dew might play hindrance to the fielding side in the 2nd innings.

With the National Anthems sung and done the 1st innings was under way. West Indies opener CH Gayle faced some opening spin from Botha, a strategy employed by the SA captain to have a spin heavy bowler side, with the exception of Steyn, Kallis and Morkel. This tactic bore fruit early on for SA, seeing Gayle depart for just 2 runs after edging the ball to Kallis at first slip.

As expected, South Africa thrashed the West Indies.

I don’t know why this would arouse much interest at all. This once great bastion of cricket has become the perennial whipping boys of world cricket. While most teams still hold some ability to play well at home, West Indies, where any team would normally shudder at touring there before, is now considered almost a guaranteed win for most team.

Our arrival in Barbados was delayed by some four hours due to a problem with the charter flight which was fortunate because it meant we could watch England’s last qualifying match against Slovenia. A tense affair with England playing marginally better than they have so far in this World Cup and just doing enough to qualify.

Victory over the West Indies in the 1st Test was comprehensive and thorough. Given that play didn’t start until 14h30 on the first day, winning by the close of the fourth day translates into a 3½ win. Celebrations followed and the next day we were on our way to the island of St Kitts and the venue for the 2nd Test starting today.

The Marriott Hotel & Resort is an enormous hotel which seems to spread over a couple of acres. I am fortunate enough to have a room in the main building thus negating the ten minute walk to the breakfast room every morning.

Trinidad’s geographic location as the most southerly of the West Indian islands situated just north of Guyana which, of course, is actually part of mainland South America, does not auger well for dry weather. We have had a fair amount of rain during the week off between the last ODI and the 1st Test due to start today (Thursday). The weather has already interfered with the two day warm up match meaning that the South African’s had a day of batting but only just a few overs of bowling.

Wherever you are in the world if the Springboks are playing an international you have to make every effort to make sure that you watch it. On Saturday the boys played against Wales and much research had gone into the start time and a venue in which we could watch. Four of us, all South Africans, set off after breakfast for the cricket ground and the sports bar therein called “All Out”. We were told that the game started at 10h00 on Fox Sports but we were only aware that the billing was simply ‘International Rugby’.