South Africa’s comprehensive win by an innings and 86 runs in the third Test in Barbados was their biggest victory against West Indies. The previous record was by an innings and 65 runs in the second Test at Kingsmead in 2003. For West Indies, this was their heaviest defeat at home.

Margin of defeat	Opposition	Year	Venue
86	South Africa	2004-05	Bridgetown
82	Australia	1954-55	Kingston
53	Australia	1994-95	Kingston
1	Pakistan	1957-58	Port-of-Spain

It was also South Africa’s fourth successive series win against the hapless West Indians. The only other team to achieve this feat is Australia, who did it over a 30-year span beginning in 1930-31. South Africa have now won 12 out of 18 Tests against West Indies, and have lost just twice – by 52 runs in 1991-92, and by 130 runs in 2000-01.Australia’s series wins:

Australia wins – Year	Series margin	South Africa – Year	Series margin
1930-31	4-1	1998-99	5-0
1951-52	4-1	2000-01	2-1
1954-55	3-0	2003-04	3-0
1960-61	2-1	2004-05	2-0

Andre Nel, who won the Man-of-the-Match award for his career-best performance of 10 for 88, has dismissed West Indies’ best batsman, Brian Lara, a staggering eight times in six Tests. Glenn McGrath is the only bowler who has nailed Lara more often, but he needed 20 matches to dismiss Lara 13 times.

Bowler name	No. of times dismissed	Matches
Glenn McGrath	13	20
Andre Nel	8	6
Angus Fraser	7	15
Allan Donald	6	10
Andy Caddick	6	14
Darren Gough	6	8

It has been all downhill for West Indies over the last few years. Since 2003, they have appeared in 25 Tests and have lost 15 of those, winning just four times. The selectors’ lack of confidence in the players is reflected in the number of players who have been picked in Tests during this period – 32 for 25 matches. Compared with most of the other teams, this is a huge number.

Team	No. of players used	Tests	Player/Test ratio
Pakistan	35	19	1.84
Sri Lanka	27	20	1.35
New Zealand	27	21	1.29
West Indies	32	25	1.28
England	31	29	1.06
South Africa	31	31	1
India	20	19	0.95
Australia	24	30	0.8