Rain, No Play

At lunch, in chase of the record 475 needed for victory, the Windies were 316/5, still 159 runs away, and having lost the wickets of Bravo and Chanderpaul. After it appeared that Chanderpaul and Bravo would have batted through to lunch, both fell in quick succession about 20 minutes from the interval. Chanderpaul and Bravo had taken the score to 303/3 with Bravo making an attacking 69. After taking 3 sixes off Beau Casson, Bravo however, went on the front foot and pushed a Casson delivery low into the hands of short cover. The next over, Stuart Clark had Chanderpaul lbw to a delivery that hit in line but was too high to hit the wicket. The umpire adjudged it close enough and gave Chanderpaul out for 50. Chanderpaul had crossed the 8,000 Test runs plateau during his innings.  read more »

The Windies closed the fourth days play of the Tgird and final Test in Bridgetown on 235/3 needing a further 240 runs to pull off what would be the greatest 4th innings run chase in history. However, with captain Chris Gayle, Xavier Marshall and Ramnaresh Sarwan back in the hut, and with Sewnarine Chattergoon limping on crutches, victory is at best a remote prospect.

Earlier in the day, Australia had piled up a mammoth 474 run lead after declaring at lunch on 439/5 with Simon Katich making 157 and Phil Jacques 108. Sulieman Benn was the leading bowler for the Windies, taking 3/154 off a mammoth 47 overs. After lunch, Marshall opened in place of the injured Chattergoon and with Gayle, put on 64 for the first wicket before Gayle got out playing a reckless cross batted pull shot. Marshall, who was dropped on 1, made the most of his reprieve and blasted a career best 85, surpassing his previous first-class best of 53, made in the previous Test. Sarwan (43) and Marshall put on 95 runs for the second wicket before Sarwan fell lbw to the offspin of Michael Clarke. Dwayne Bravo then joined Shiv Chanderpaul at the crease and the two have so far added 54 for the fourth wicket.

Bravo finally got some 'luck' as after being given out at least twice in the series to phantom catches as a batsman and also twice being denied wickets as a bowler due to umpiring errors, he was given not out after he apparently gloved a delivery from Brett Lee to the keeper. Lee almost had Bravo again when a yorker appeared to be plumb lbw, but the umpire turned down the appeal. Bravo made the most of his unexpected fortune and took on Lee in a classic confrontation between fast bowler and batsman that left the crowd oohing and ahhing. Lee, despite some excellent fast bowling to Bravo, was unable to dislodge him and when the Windies had piled up 235/3 at the end of the day's play, suddenly the unthinkable win in chasing 475 somehow seemed plausible. And with only 240 runs needed on the final day, barring rain, its either going to be an Aussie win or a Windies win. Batting out the day will almost certainly bring the 240 runs needed for victory.  read more »

[image from Digicel's Match gallery]

After bowling out the Australians for a mere 251, the Windies failed to capitalise on the advantage they had as they managed a mere 216 in reply on the second day of the Third Test at Bridgetown. Once again, Shivnarine Chanderpaul was the anchor of the innings. Chanderpaul was left undefeated on 79 as the last 6 wickets fell for 48 runs. It was the kind of pathetic batting display that Windies fans have long hoped to see the end of.

The innings got off to a shaky start with openers Chris Gayle (14) and Sewnarine Chattergoon (6) falling cheaply. Gayle and Chattergoon were playing their first match in the series due to injury. Sarwan fell shortly after at 64/3. Xavier Marshall played some good drives in his 39, but one felt he was too aggressive and that his dismissal was always imminent. Dwayne Bravo joined Chanderpaul and they rebuilt the innings, taking the total from 108-4 to 168-5 when Bravo was caught down the legside. Bravo's dismissal was the correct decision (this time), and was definitely ironic given Bravo being given out in the last Test in a phantom legside catch decision and the umpires' giving Aussie Andrew Symonds twice not out to legitimate legside catches off Bravo's bowling in this series.

At Bravo's dismissal, the wheels came off the innings as the Windies tail was simply out of their league. Some like Daren Powell and Jerome Taylor played horrible shots. Some like Fidel Edwards got deliveries that were simply too good for them.

With a deficit of only 35 runs, all is not lost for the Windies, but they will have to once again depend on their bowlers to get them back in the game, as their batsmen, save the dependable Chanderpaul, make the most of the advantage they gained after dismissing Australia for 251. Chanderpaul, the anchor of the Windies' batting since the retirement of Brian Lara, has made scores of 118, 11, 107 n.o., 77 n.o. and 79 n.o. in this series. In fact, since Chanderpaul became the 'biggest bat' in the side on Lara's retirement, he has averaged 110.45 with 5 centuries and 8 fifties in the 11 Tests he has played. And that against opposition the likes of England, South Africa, Sri Lanka and now Australia. Is there any doubt that Chanderpaul is one of the all time great West Indian batsmen?

We've enjoyed seeing Fidel Edwards take the fight to Brett Lee especially since Lee floored Shivnarine Chanderpaul in the first Test at Kingston. There is a history between the two however, that goes back to at least 2005 when the Windies toured Australia. There, just like with this series, Edwards made sure to give Lee a taste of his own medicine.

Stuart Clarke (4/22) and Brett Lee (2/56) have removed the Windies' middle order to leave the home team limping at 117/6 at lunch. Denesh Ramdin (22*) and Darren Sammy (13*) are the not out batsmen. With the West Indies needing another 170 runs with only 4 wickets in hand, barring a near-miracle, Australia are on the way to winning the first Test.

UPDATE: The Windies went down to defeat by 95 runs, having been bowled out for 191.

The Windies will need 287 runs in their fourth innings to defeat Australia in the first Test at Kingston. A counter-attacking 79 from Andrew Symonds was the only thing that kept the Windies from having a more modest total to chase as only Brad Hodge(27) and Brad Haddin (23) managed to get into double digits. The day started promisingly enough when Daren Powell removed night watchman Mitchell Johnson in the day's first over. However, that brought Symonds to the crease and he and Hodge, with a 52 run partnership, and then he and Haddin, with a 74 run partnership, rebuilt Australia's innings.

However with the fall of Haddin at 144-7, the Windies were able to quickly wrap up the Aussie tail, taking the last 4 wickets for 23 as the men from down under fell for 167. Full credit goes to the pace of Powell and Fidel Edwards who both finished with 3 wickets, but it was Dwayne Bravo who got the key wickets of Hodge, Symonds and Haddin. Bravo bowled with nice control and kept the batsmen from scoring too quickly and was rewarded for his efforts with figures of 4-47. The one kink in the bowling attack today was debutante Amit Jaggernauth, who Symonds in particular punished for 22 runs from his 3 overs. Rain, No Play hopes the selectors continue with him and not discard him, as spinners typically take a little while to settle into Test cricket.

The target is 287. The bad news for the West Indies is that no team has made as much as 287 in the fourth innings at Sabina and won the match. Besides the 480/5 the Windies made in their first ever match at Sabina in 1930 in a tame draw, the highest they have made in the 4th innings is 258/9 in 1978. Worse still is the fact that the Windies were chasing 280 in 2005 against Pakistan and were bowled out for 143 and in 2006 they chased 269 against India and were bowled out for 219. You can see the list of 4th innings results at Sabina here.

Is 287 gettable? I think it is. It probably is about 40 or 50 runs more than I would have hoped for, but I think it is definitely gettable. A lot rests on the senior batsmen in the side, namely Chanderpaul, Sarwan and Bravo.

UPDATE: At stumps the Windies are 46/1 with Parchment falling for 15. The Windies will need 241 tomorrow with 9 wickets in hand. But for rain, we'll have a result tomorrow. The question is - can the Windies knock off these runs?

The Windies shocked the visiting Aussies late in the day by taking 4 quick wickets to leave the Aussies reeling at 17/4 in their second innings. Earlier the Windies had battled to 312 due largely to a fantastic 118 by Shivnarine Chanderpaul a half century from Runako Morton 67 and a dashing 46 from Dwayne Bravo. Chanderpaul's innings provided the impetus for the fightback as he was hit on the back of his helmet by a Brett Lee bouncer, seemingly knocked out cold, only to get back up again and notch his 18th Test century.

Facing a deficit of 119 runs on first innings, Fidel Edwards and Daren Powell bowled with accurate pace and controlled aggression to slice off the Aussies' top order. Phil Jacques might as well been Failure Jacques today as Edwards had him caught behind for 4 following his first innings score of 9. Powell then took the big wicket of the captain Ricky Ponting when Ponting pushed uncertainly forward and gave a catch to the slips at 10-2. It was soon 12-3 when Simon Katich was trapped plum by a fast delivery from Edwards. It soon got worse for the Aussies as Mike Hussey was clean bowled at 12-4 by an excellent Daren Powell delivery. Panic must have ran through the Aussie dressing room as they sent in a night watchman in Mitchell Johnson. When the umpires offered the light at 17-4 the Aussie batsmen gladly accepted the offer.  read more »

Chanderpaul scored yet another hundred today against Australia.

What can you say about Chanderpaul? Another battling hundred to save the Windies innings.

Of course these numbers will change, but with him on 104 n.o. in this match, he has now scored 927 runs for an average of 103 in 9 Test matches since the start of the England tour last year May. In that time span he has scored 4 centuries and 6 fifties.

Imagine that. Averaging over 100 for a one year time frame. Bradmanesque?

UPDATE: Chanderpaul was out for 118, mistiming a pull off a full toss. This drops his average for the period from May 17, 2007 (the start of the England tour) to now to 94.10.

Andrew Symond's 70 take Australia to 431 as Fidel Edwards shines with the ball, taking 5/104. Brenton Parchment struggles on debut, scoring 9 in 2 hours as Runako Morton and Shiv Chanderpaul look to rebuild the Windies innings after they lost two quick wickets to fall to 78/3.

A big hundred for Ricky Ponting. The Windies struggle in the field with only Fidel Edwards consistently troubling the batsmen. With Jerome Taylor unable to play due to injury, the bowling makeup of only two fast bowlers in Daren Powell and Edwards shows its inability to take consistent wickets as the Aussies methodically build a big total. Medium pacers Dwayne Bravo and Darren Sammy as well as debutante offspinner Amit Jaggernauth round out the bowling options. Powell however struggled to be effective, putting more pressure on the other bowlers. Jaggernaut showed promise for his first Test even though he only got one wicket. That was a beauty of a catch that Parchment took to displace Ponting.