Series slips away from West Indies

The West Indies are facing a mammoth task to rescue the match and the series against South Africa after reaching stumps 394 runs behind the hosts on the second day of the decisive third Test in Durban, which will be all-rounder Shaun Pollock's last international match. The 34-year-old South African announced at stumps on day two that he is to retire from international cricket at the end of the Test, his 108th. He has also played 298 one-day internationals.

The tourists closed on 23 for 0 in their second innings, with openers Brenton Parchment (17) and Daren Ganga (six) seeing off 11 overs after the home team declared on 556 for 4 – a first-innings lead of 417. With the series at 1-1, the West Indies were hoping to claim a first series win since 2003. Those hopes now appear to have been dashed, after Ashwell Prince and AB De Villiers joined Graeme Smith in making centuries.

"I'm looking forward to finishing things off from a cricket perspective," Pollock said. "Only time will tell what my involvement with South Africa will be. I'll be moving from a committed South Africa player to a committed South Africa supporter."

Pakistan, meanwhile, have asked the International Cricket Council to change the official result of The Oval Test against England played in 2006.

England were declared winners after Pakistan forfeited the match in protest over umpire Darrell Hair's decision to penalise them for alleged ball tampering. It was the first forfeited result in Test history. "We have moved the application on the basis of the ICC dropping the ball-tampering charges," said a Pakistan official. The good thing is that England supported our plea and the matter was discussed at the board meeting of the ICC and than referred to the cricket committee."