A CHRONIC case of dropsy was added to the West Indies' ever growing list of woes on the third day of the second Test here yesterday.
Already weighed down by a proliferation of injuries, inadequate bowling, unreliable batting and the loss of two tosses, they missed six catches as South Africa amassed 658 for nine declared, the highest total in their 153 home Tests and second highest in 272 overall.
The West Indies' ineptitude, that extended to fumbling ground fielding and more ragged bowling, was humiliating even by their inferior standards of recent years.
It left them with a deficit of 394 on the first innings and a virtual mission impossible if they are to avoid their second successive defeat in the series.
At least the pitch is as true and even as they come.
Somehow openers Wavell Hinds and Daren Ganga managed to survive two failed attempts at suicide by run out to get through the 10 overs remaining when Graeme Smith closed South Africa's innings and they carry what fight there is left into the fourth day.
Both were gone, as was nightwatchman Vasbert Drakes, off the same number at the end of the fourth day of the first Test.
Then, only one day remained and the seven standing wickets could only last half of it. This time, two days are left and Shivnarine Chanderpaul, their second most important batsman, is carrying a leg strain that prevented him fielding for most of South Africa's innings and commits him to batting no higher than No.7.
The West Indian effort had begun to unravel on the previous day when South Africa rushed to 303 for three off 74 overs against bowling hardly unacceptable at Test level.
Their only prospect of reclaiming some of the immense ground lost was to take a few early wickets on another cloudless day of dazzling sunshine.
It was dashed when the first three chances were muffed within the first three-quarters of an hour.
Two were off Gary Kirsten, the other off Jacques Kallis who proceeded to carry their fledgling overnight partnership of 36 to 249, erasing a South African fourth wicket record of 214 between H.W.Taylor and H.G.Deane against England at the Oval that had stood for 75 years.
Kirsten, South Africa's most capped player and highest scorer in Tests, was put down when he had added only six to his overnight 16 and again at 41, both in Merv Dillon probing opening spell of nine overs for 17.
Brian Lara at first slip parried, but did not hold, the first chance, two-handed and overhead from an edged cut. The stand was then worth a mere 47.
Vasbert Drakes, who was to have a forgettable day, put down Kirsten's second, two-handed to his left at gully off a more authentic cut off the second new ball.
Five balls earlier, Drakes was also the culprit, spilling a straight-forward, lap-high skier moving in from long-leg off Kallis' miscued hook from Fidel Edwards' well directed bouncer, also with the second ball.
By the time Drakes finally held one on the mid-wicket boundary from Kirsten's top-edged sweep off Ramnaresh Sarwan's improving leg-spin, the 36-year-old left-hander had 137 and 20 fours to his name after four hours, 35 minutes batting.
Along the way to his 20th hundred in his 96th Test, he became the first South African to 7,000 runs.
Kallis kept the West Indies waiting 55 minutes longer before he offered them another break, cracking Dillon hard to cover-point where Ramnaresh Sarwan grabbed a shoulder-high catch to his left.
Drakes' earlier mistake gave Kallis 92 of his 177 runs, his 13th Test hundred, his second in the series and his third against the West Indies. It took him 344 balls and eight hours to compile and also contained 20 fours.
Drakes had special reason to feel aggrieved at Kallis' success and not only because of his spilled catch.
On the previous afternoon, umpire Simon Taufel had failed to detect Kallis' thin edge to wicket-keeper Ridley Jacobs off him when he was 48.
For bad measure, Sarwan, Daren Ganga and Adam Sanford all added to the dropsy epidemic once Kirsten and Kallis had gone.
Sarwan missed a low return when an uncertain Neil McKenzie had just come in and made three of his eventual 32.
Andrew Hall was put down by Ganga at slip off Sanford when 5 and again by Sanford at long-leg off Sarwan when 23. He helped himself to 32.
Sanford's chance, the last, followed a succession of feckless fumbles and failed foot stops in the field and summed up the West Indies' day in one embarrassing moment.
Hall's topedged sweep off Sarwan sailed in a gentle parabola into Sanford's two waiting hands at deep backward square-leg and back out again.
The crowd in the seats behind him howled their derision at such clumsiness on a Test match field. It was an unforgiving error for a cricketer of any standard, far less a policeman whose job presumably depends on a sure grip for apprehending wrong doers.
Batsmen the calibre and experience of Kallis and Kirsten do not often spurn the opportunities they were given, especially not against such unchallenging bowling and in such ideal conditions.
At 87, Kallis was favoured by umpire Darrel Hair's doubt on an lbw claim for Dillon that Hawkeye, television's technical aid, ruled would have taken leg stump. But that was a rare alarm for the two batsmen.
Once they were let off, they did much as they pleased, thumping the wide half-volleys and the abundance o short balls to the boundary, keeping out any good ones that came along.
When Sanford took over from Dillon, Kallis raised his 100 off 205 balls with three fours in his first over, a sequence that Kirsten soon trumped with four successive fours off Drakes whose bowling has become that of a tired man.
Kirsten's 100 arrived through his 17th four, courtesy of Edwards' misfield but it raised the question. What was an inexperienced fast bowler doing at the difficult backward point position to a leg-spinner, Sarwan?
Through the afternoon, Lara missed a couple of possible run outs that direct hits might have effected, Ganga had a few overs of leg-theory off-spin and Sarwan continued to make the ball turn and bounce, if not quite like Shane Warne at least accurate enough to need careful watching.
He was rewarded with the wickets of Kirsten and Pollock, both to top-edged sweeps, and should have had McKenzie and Hall as well.
Instead Drakes claimed McKenzie, through a fine edge to Jacobs (after he had hoisted Sarwan straight and hooked Edwatds for sixes,) and Mark Boucher, lbw.
Smith closed when Makhaya Ntini lobbed a catch to extra-cover to enter the only 0 in the innings.