GIVEN the foul weather that enveloped Durban for three days, the wonder of the third one-day international yesterday was not so much that it was abandoned without a result at nine p.m. as the rain pelted down but that it got underway at all.
Had it run its abbreviated course, the West Indies had a fair chance of victory, their first over South Africa for the tour, that would have kept the series alive at 2-1 with two matches remaining, at Centurion tomorrow and Johannesburg on Wednesday.
They completed their twice rain-interrupted innings at 147 for eight from 40 overs, leaving South Africa the Duckworth-Lewis devised target of 169 to win off the same number.
By then, the already fresh pitch had been further moistened by the effects of the rain and the sweating under the covers.
The upshot was that Merv Dillon especially and Corey Collymore were turning Graeme Smith, Herschelle Gibbs and Jacques Kallis, three of their tormentors in the Test series, into struggling novices with steep bounce and exaggerated movement.
When the final deluge arrived to halt the embarrassment, Smith, twice rapped on the gloves by Dillon, was already out, miscuing a pull to be taken by Brian Lara running around from mid-on, and Gibbs and Kallis were looking unusually vulnerable.
The abandonment ultimately meant disappointment for a crowd of 20,000 as much as for the West Indies but there was time for a significant innings by Ricardo Powell, an even 50 that was his first half-century in 26 such matches.
Once more sent at No.3 while Lara kept himself back to No.5, Powell entered in the fourth over when Chris Gayle was caught at point off the back of the bat.
It was clear from three consecutive maidens from Shaun Pollock and a few wicked deliveries from him and Andre Nel that this was not a pitch that suited Powell's usual free-wheeling style.
A rapid demise after a couple of explosive shots, as has so often been the case, seemed inevitable.
Instead, he demonstrated a welcome appreciation of the conditions and his responsibility.
Although there were six sizzling trademark boundaries - a couple of straight drives off Nel and Makhaya Ntini, an on-drive off Nel, two meaty pulls in Lance Klusener's fourth over - there was also a sensible shot selection and a defence that have rarely been evident.
He had just raised his 50, out of 79 for three, when he permitted himself a favourite shot, picking up Ntini off his legs only to find the fielder on the square-leg boundary.
One shower doesn't make the rainy season, of course, but if Powell can bat so sensibly at No.3 against quality bowling in such conditions, there might yet be a future in the longer game for him. He is, after all, still only 26.
His comfort contrasted with Shivnarine Chander-paul's laboured 17 off 55 balls that was ended by a topedged hook to deep square-leg off Klusener.
Two overs after Powell's dismissal, there were two breaks for rain, at 83 for three that lasted an hour and 10 minutes and at 98 for three after 30.5 overs that kept everyone waiting a further hour and 20 minutes.
The West Indies innings was reduced to 40 overs on resumption when it was quickly clear the rain had further perked up the pitch.
Lara took a couple of painful lashes to the thumb from Pollock as did Ridley Jacobs when he got in and the helter-skelter search for runs off the remaining 9.1 overs brought only 42 for five more wickets, four caught off skiers, Ryan Hurley bowled in the last over.
Dwayne Smith thumped Klusener over mid-off for four and pulled him into the crowd at midwicket for six off successive balls. He hoisted the next high to long-on.
Even as darkness set in, there was rain in the air and it wasn't long in coming for the last time for the match.
That as many as 45 overs were possible was a tribute to the success of the expensive improvements to the ground's drainage.
It was an obligation for every South African venue for last year's World Cup as it will be for the West Indies in 2007.
It proved its worth, absorbing almost three inches of rainfall so that play started at the appointed time of 2.30 pm.
But the sky remained covered in heavy dark clouds, the sun never made an appearance and the floodlights were in use throughout.