(ESPNCRICINFO) – Tony de Zorzi, South Africa’s opening batter, who was dismissed for 78 before lunch, sat on the change-room balcony with a copy of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World.
Ironic, because what played out in front of him was nothing like the novel’s dystopian reality. Instead, it was, as his coach Shukri Conrad predicted: Same old Test cricket. “Traditional” was the word South Africa’s red-ball coach used to describe what he expected would be attritional cricket in Trinidad, and that is what the teams produced.

All but one South African batter, Aiden Markram, got starts. Two, de Zorzi and captain Temba Bavuma, made half-centuries, and there were four 50-plus partnerships, but there were no hundreds. Only one frontline West Indies bowler, left-arm spinner Gudakesh Motie, conceded at more than 3.5 runs per over and the seamers shared five wickets between them. They were disciplined most of the time and threatening for some of it, but did not consistently trouble the batters. All these things could have a lot to do with the kind of surface this Test is being played on: docile, fairly dry, and lacking in life in the form of bounce or pace. It was the kind of surface that requires patience, not flair, and rewards those who are willing to grind.
That was evident from the first exchanges when West Indies’ senior seamers Kemar Roach and Jason Holder relied on good lengths to keep South Africa quiet and were punished as soon as they strayed. In the third over of the day, Holder dropped it a fraction short and de Zorzi scored the first boundary when he dabbed it behind point. In the next over, Roach was a touch too full and Tristan Stubbs drove his first and last balls through the covers with confidence.

South Africa’s second-wicket pair were beaten on occasion but were mostly fairly comfortable early on. De Zorzi reached his second Test fifty off 78 balls. Importantly for de Zorzi, it is also his first success in his first attempt at opening in Tests. Stubbs did not quite have the same results at No. 3 and failed to use his feet when Roach angled a length ball in from wide of the crease. With the slip cordon up, Stubbs edged behind and Holder dived across from second slip to take the catch low down.
Roach was pumped and greeted a leaden-footed Bavuma with a delivery that almost kissed the bat before beating the outside edge. He kept Bavuma in the crease throughout that over but the South African captain was happy to bide his time. Bavuma took ten balls to get his first runs but when he did, he got them with confidence. He stepped down the pitch and hit Motie over his head for two runs to bring up 3000 runs in Test cricket.

While Bavuma’s approach remained watchful – understandable given this was his first Test innings since March 2023 – any aggression came from de Zorzi. He was proactive in turning an intended drive off Jayden Seales into a slice over point and reverse-swept Motie to get to 70. With a top score of 85, also scored against West Indies, de Zorzi would have been eyeing a first century but he undid himself with a second reverse sweep off Jomel Warrican and gloved it to Kavem Hodge at slip, 12 minutes before lunch.