Cricket: South Africa's re-entry landmark

South Africa 360-9 and 130-6 dec

India 276 and 29-1

Match drawn

SOUTH AFRICA secured their first Test series victory since their re-entry into the international arena when the fourth and final Test against India ended in a draw in Cape Town yesterday. Kepler Wessels' team took the series 1-0 by virtue of their nine-wicket win in the third Test in Port Elizabeth.

South Africa played one Test in West Indies last year, but this was the first full series since their isolation ended.

The match ended after India threatened to bowl South Africa out cheaply and earn an unlikely stab at victory. In the event, Wessels declared at 130 for 6 after South Africa had added 82 runs during 64 overs in just over two sessions.

India were set 215 to win in a minimum 22 overs, but were only 29 for 1 when play was unsurprisingly called off 30 minutes early. 'There was a lot of pressure from various areas to give the crowd some form of entertainment,' Wessels said, explaining his declaration. 'It was not a situation where much could be achieved but it was a pity it fizzled out.'

More positive for India was the coming of age of Javagal Srinath, the gangling fast bowler, whose 4 for 33 in 27 overs made him man of the match. Wessels hit his side's highest score innings score with 34, taking his series aggregate to 295 runs, the best on either side.

Even so, with the score at 61 yesterday, Wessels pulled horribly at Srinath and was caught and bowled off the mis-hit shot. Jonty Rhodes and Darryl Cullinan added 34 before Brian McMillan and Dave Richardson batted out until the declaration.

(Fifth and final day; South Africa won toss)

SOUTH AFRICA - First innings 360 for 9 dec (J N Rhodes 86, B M McMillan 52).

INDIA - First innings 276 (S R Tendulkar 73, M Prabhakar 62).

SOUTH AFRICA - Second Innings

(Overnight: 48 for 2)

* K C Wessels c and b Srinath 34

A C Hudson c More b Srinath 11

W J Cronje c More b Srinath 0

P N Kirsten c Manjrekar b Kapil Dev 13

D J Cullinan c More b Srinath 28

J N Rhodes c Srinath b Kumble 16

B M McMillan not out 11

D J Richardson not out 10

Extras (lb4 nb3) 7

Total (for 6 dec) 130

Fall: 1-20 2-28 3-61 4-61 5-95 6-107.

Bowling: Kapil Dev 17-4-29-1; Prabhakar 10-4-19-0; Srinath 27-10-33-4 (nb2); Kumble 23-11-20-1 (nb1); Venkatapathy Raju 20-8-25-0.

INDIA - Second Innings

A D Jadeja not out 20

M Prabhakar c Richardson b Matthews 7

S V Manjrekar not out 2

Extras 0

Total (for 1) 29

Fall: 1-21.

Bowling: Donald 4-0-7-0; Matthews 6-1-17-1; Cronje 3-3-0-0; Rhodes 1-0-5-0.

Umpires: D Shepherd (Eng); K Liebenberg and B Lambson (SA).

MATCH DRAWN