Well, sundowners at Tony’s was a gas!! On arrival we were met by a tall thin guy who appeared to be somewhere between Jupiter and Mars as he danced to the blaring music all on his own and in a world of his own. Nothing overly unusual about this other than our friend was dressed in the following manner. Black baseball cap, sunglasses, string of beads around his neck, black ‘designer’ speedo with two cellphones clipped on either side along with his car keys. He must have danced for at least an hour and a half before slowly walking off into the sunset.

Dinner at The Beach Restaurant was again outstanding. The food really is excellent and the vibe typical of the island. I spoilt myself by ordering chicken wings with blue cheese sauce as a starter followed by lobster thermidor with mash potato. It was unbelievably good, as was the company of my colleagues and their choice of red wine.

I had a reasonably early night and an early rise in the morning as we were leaving for the ground at 07h45 for a 09h30 start of the first of five ODI’s. Some heavy showers before breakfast didn’t auger well for a prompt start and as expected the match was delayed for 30 minutes and another squall sent the players off the field after just 5 overs. Losing the toss for the third consecutive time, Graeme Smith was sent in to bat on a pitch that showed signs of dampness. However, this seemed to make no difference as Hashim Amla in particular scored a fine hundred to set the innings up. His partnership with AB de Villiers was the backbone of the innings and ensured a competitive total of 280 which was adjusted to 281 by the Duckworth/Lewis method.

Although Chris Gayle was given two chances, once he was out the West Indies hopes pretty much went with him. Keiron Pollard threatened to spoil South Africa’s party for a few brief moments but Graeme Smith’s men stuck to the basics of the game and came out easy winners.

To summarise, the pitch was a good one. South Africa batted well on it, the West Indies didn’t.