Let us get one thing straight. Unless there is a drastic change in the weather, the pitches and the temperatures around South Africa over the next six weeks or so, we could well have these two teams scoring a record number of runs in a four-Test series.

No one was surprised that South Africa batted immediately after winning the toss. As Ian Chappell, the former Australian captain, would have said; "If a captain wins the toss, rest assured that he will elect to bat first at least 80% of the time. In the remaining 20% of the time, he may think of the alternative, fielding first, but would bat first anyway."

The only disappointment for the South African captain, Graeme Smith, would have been that even after making 132, with only one chance, a sharp one to his opposite number, Brian Lara, fielding at leg-gully to Ramnaresh Sarwan's (yes, Ramnaresh Sarwan) bowling, he did not manage to carry on. Smith is a guy who now has five Test centuries, and his lowest three figure score has been that 132. He has converted three of those five centuries to double centuries and simply likes to accumulate runs.

On the type of pitch on which the first Test is being played, there was no great hope for anything else, even if the West Indies bowlers were steady and persevered well. The West Indies would have done well to get a few more wickets. Chris Scott, the grounds-man at the Wanderers, world famous for being the first grounds-man anywhere to be named "Man of the Match" in an international game, had created a "belter."

Lee Irvine, who played his Test career in 1970 and finished his Test career with an average of 50, a man who turned 60 last March, could not help but comment on the pitch:"Even at my age, I would love to bat on that pitch. It is a beauty for batting."Indeed!!

All things being the same from now until the last day of Test No. 4, we should be treated to a zillion runs, at least, for the Test series. One only has to look at the batting line-ups for the two teams to realize that the bowlers are on a hiding to nothing.

South Africa has Gibbs, Smith, Rudolph, Kallis, Van Jaarsfeld, Mc Kenzie, Boucher and Pollock, all except Van Jaarsfeld with Test hundreds, while the West Indies has Gayle, (if fit to continue), Hinds, Ganga, Lara, Sarwan, Chanderpaul, Jacobs, all with Test hundreds.