"I wanted to make sure when the middle order came in they had something to build on"
A magnificent record unbroken stand of 241 between Wavell Hinds and Shivnarine Chanderpaul took West Indies to 347-3 at stumps against South Africa.
Hinds, playing his first Test in 14 months due to the sponsorship row which saw seven home players dropped, reached his fifth ton with one of 30 fours.
A total of 161 runs came from 29.5 overs in the final session as the Windies recovered superbly from 24-2.
Andre Nel did the early damage and was the only wicket-taker, returning 3-50.
It was a new-look West Indies team listed on the team sheet under the captaincy of Chanderpaul, with Donovan Pagon and Narsingh Deonarine handed Test debuts.
South Africa brought in swing bowler Charl Langeveldt for Monde Zondeki in the only change to their side.
Chanderpaul chose to bat first but the Windies were under the cosh immediately as Nel claimed the wickets of Devon Smith and Daren Ganga in his third over.
The left-handed Smith looked to be getting into his stride when he cracked two sparkling fours off Nel's second over.
But the burly paceman caught the opener's edge with the first ball of the sixth over of the innings, Mark Boucher diving across in front of first slip to take the catch.
That brought Ganga to the crease, but having failed to score off his first four balls, he edged the fifth to Boucher.
Hinds and Pagon put on 82 before the youngster fell trying to drive Nel and was caught at short extra cover for 35 by Jacques Kallis with the score on 106.
But Hinds and Chanderpaul held firm either side of a rain delay to launch the team's highest fourth-wicket partnership against South Africa.
The explosive shot-making took Hinds to a career-best total, while Chanderpaul denied an initial offer for bad light to complete his 12th century, the fourth on his home turf at Georgetown, with successive boundaries.
Chanderpaul then accepted the umpires' next offer, and walked off with darkness descending as the third West Indian to claim a century in his first Test as captain.
Chris Gayle and Ramnaresh Sarwan have ended their personal sponsorship deals, but their move did not come in time for them to be selected for this Test.
West Indies: W W Hinds, D S Smith, D Ganga, D J Pagon, S Chanderpaul (Capt), R O Hinds, N Deonarine, C O Browne (Wkt) D B Powell, P T Collins, R D King.
South Africa: G C Smith (Capt), A B de Villiers, J A Rudolph J H Kallis, H H Gibbs, M V Boucher (Wkt), A J Hall, N Boje, M Ntini C K Langeveldt, A Nel.
Umpires: David Shepherd (Eng), Aleem Dar (Pkn). Match referee: Jeff Crowe (NZ).