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.
With an overall lead of 136, the Australians have in addition to overnight batsmen Johnson and Brad Hodge, Andrew Symonds, debutante wicketkeeper Brad Haddin and the bowlers in Lee, Clark and MacGill to come. Symonds' form over the last few years is legendary, Hodge has a great first class record and sports a Test average of over 50 albeit in 5 matches, while Haddin is seen as the successor to Adam Gilchrist, so there is a fair amount of batting left to come. But if the Windies can continue this torrid spell against the Aussies tomorrow morning and take a few early wickets, then we may be looking at a very improbable come from behind win. However the work must be done tomorrow. If the Windies can limit the target they will need to win the match to less than 300 or better yet around 250, then we West Indian fans may be in for quite a satisfying result. As Chanderpaul, Morton and Bravo showed, this Aussie attack sans McGrath and Warne doesn't have the teeth that it once did. Even with Brett Lee and Stuart Clark, even with Warne-heir-apparent Stuart MacGill, and the left handed pace of Mitchell Johnson and even without captain Chris Gayle, a target of 250-300 will be very gettable.
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