THE image of West Indies cricket, so severely battered by the shocking ineptitude in the field the day before, was restored by an audacious 20-year-old on debut here yesterday afternoon.

Batting with the flair and lack of inhibition on which its reputation is built - and with what captain Brian Lara termed "the innocence of youth" - Dwayne Smith provided a significant and spectacular finale to the draw that his run-a-ball, stroke-filled, unbeaten 105 ensured in the third Test.

The result gave South Africa an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series with the final Test starting in Centurion January 16. But it ended the sequence of seven successive West Indies defeats in South Africa and confirmed Lara's bold declaration after the second Test defeat that there would be no repeat of the whitewash of 1998-99 series in his first tenure as captain.

Smith disregarded the potential crisis that faced the West Indies when he entered 20 minutes after tea at 224 for four with a winning target of 441 by then realistically beyond reach and 66.3 overs remaining for South Africa's bowlers to complete their third successive victory in the series.

When South African captain Graeme Smith conceded there was no point continuing with five of the 105 overs still available, Smith had made his runs out of the 130 while he was at the wicket with Wavell Hinds and Ridley Jacobs.

The West Indies were 354 for five and the match that repeatedly during its course had drifted away from the West Indies was comfortably saved.

Smith arrived in South Africa to replace the injured Marlon Samuels as a non-entity.

He had one first-class hundred behind him, for Barbados against Guyana in Anguilla two seasons ago, but an unflattering average of 22.

Chairman of selectors Sir Viv Richards had seen his Anguilla innings and, last October, watched his unbeaten 92 with nine sixes against Guyana in the Red Stripe Bowl match and clearly recognised potential and a kindred spirit.

As he and his panel have done with so many young players recently, Richards took the gamble. He was at Newlands yesterday to see it pay off.

The dismissals of Lara, for a determined 86 to follow his first innings 115, and vice-captain Ramnaresh Sarwan, for a solid 60, within 21 runs of each other after a three-hour partnership of 156, raised South African expectations of another triumph.

But Smith, a slim right-hander, treated the bowling and the situation as if it was a Saturday afternoon match for his YMPC club team in Barbados on its miniscule ground.

Comparisons in method and execution have long since been made in Barbados with Collis King, also a YMPC member, and Smith's shots were as clean and as potent.

He gave a hint of his approach and power in his first innings 20.

In the second, he went immediately into overdrive, especially targeting the awkward left-arm wrist spinner Paul Adams.

He shook off an early blow to the helmet when he missed a hook at Jacques Kallis to pepper the boundaries with sweetly timed, wristy strokes.

He arrived at his 50 from 52 balls by taking two fours and driving a straight six off successive balls from Adams.

He reserved his most sensational stroke for Makhaya Ntini, a square-drive on bended knee for six into the Railway Stand at extra-cover off the pacy Ntini with the second new ball.

He reached his 100 from 93 balls with a sizzling drive through extra-cover off Nel for four, his 15th.

A genuine lbw decision that umpire Srinivas Venkataraghavan ruled against Kallis was the closest South Africa came to halting his onslaught.

Smith's leaping celebration, helmet removed and looking to the heavens, was his first sign of emotion.

He was the 11th West Indian to score a hundred in his first Test, the first since Basil "Shotgun" Williams against Australia at Bourda in 1978, and the second youngest since another 20-year-old, George Headley by name, scored 176 against England at Kensington in 1930.

Until he came in, West Indian hopes of avoiding their third defeat in the series rested with Lara and Sarwan who held the innings together after openers Daren Ganga and Chris Gayle fell to Ntini.

Yet again, some devil in Ganga's head fooled him that he could hook and the shot brought his downfall, as it did in the first innings of the series.

He straight-drove and pulled Nel for boundaries in the same over and could not resist going after an overhead bouncer that he edged to wicket-keeper Mark Boucher.

Gayle could not repeat the destruction of his 79-ball hundred on the second afternoon, getting 31 in an hour before he was taken at gully from an edge to a full-length ball.

At 47 for two with 91 overs remaining, Lara and Sarwan needed to mount a temporary holding operation. But Lara said afterwards he never ruled out the unlikely prospect of winning.

When light rain brought an early lunch, he was 44 off 55 balls, Sarwan was 39 off 77 and, at 128 for two from 33 overs, the contest was just developing.

Sarwan began uncertainly against Adams, offering a difficult slip chance to Pollock via the keeper's pad, but gradually settled.

Lara raised the 100 partnership in the 39th over, prompting Smith to employ a defensive field for a spell from Nel and Kallis. The tactic served the purpose.

The scoring slowed to 24 from 10 overs, prompting Lara into a pull shot off Nel that he underedged to Boucher 20 minutes to tea.

His 86 occupied 138 balls and included 14 fours and, as always, it was the key wicket.

As Sarwan exited to a gully catch off Ntini's bouncer 20 minutes into the final session, the balance had swung back to a South Africa win.

Smith changed it again. He scored 61 out of a stand of 72 with Hinds who fell to Pollock with the second new ball with 22 overs still available. As in two previous dismissals in the series, he wss offering no shot.