Date-stamped : 25 Apr95 - 10:48 West Indies v Australia, Test 3 Played at Queen's Park Oval, Port of Spain, Trinidad on 21, 22, 23 April 1995. ====> Day 1, 21 Apr 95 Steve Waugh rocked from the blows and almost rolled with the punches in a confrontation with Curtly Ambrose as the third cricket Test lived up to its billing as the heavyweight champion- ship of the world in Trinidad yesterday. The needles of criticism on his home front have sunk in and Am- brose stormed along the pitch spoiling for a fight with Waugh (54 not out) before being dragged away, literally, by captain Richie Richardson. Following a bouncer which whistled over his head soon after lunch, Waugh made the inconsequential remark, ``You`re f...... bowling!`` Gesturing to himself, the enraged Ambrose (3-35) demanded: ``You talk to me?`` He marched down the wicket to within 2 metres of Waugh, and, staring right at the batsman, said: ``Don`t you f...... swear at me!`` Concerned by Ambrose`s threatening manner, Richardson hastened up from third slip and seized the fast bowler, hauling him away from Waugh. The crowd howled with delight when Ambrose levelled anoth- er bouncer at Waugh two overs later. After showers reduced the first day of the Test to three hours of crackling wickets and crumbling Australian optimism, by which time the tourists were a flimsy 7-112, referee Majid Khan inter- viewed both Waugh and Ambrose, found there was no case to answer and took no action. Waugh said last night: ``It`s Test match cricket. It`s tough. It`s not an easy game. There`s a lot at stake out there. It`s a Test match. We`re playing to be the No 1 side in the world. And if you think you`re going out there for a friendly game, you`re wrong. It`s going to be tough. There are going to be stares. A couple of words passed between players, and I can`t see any prob- lem with that.`` When one Trinidad journalist inquired: ``What`s on with you and Ambrose?`` Waugh suggested: ``Take up netball.`` Nursing a bruised right elbow and swollen right forefinger, which were struck in quick succession by Kenneth Benjamin, Waugh main- tained that Australia could still win the Test and the Frank Worrell Trophy despite their predicament. After two-and-a-half hours of grim concentration against the seaming, rearing ball, Waugh refused to run up the white flag, on the field or off it, insisting that on such a moist, green mon- ster of a pitch Australia could turn the tables on their rivals. back ourselves. The wicket`s not going to change much over five days or however long the Test goes. I think we`ll be a good show. If we`re good enough, we`ll win. That`s what it boils down to. If we want it, we`ll win.`` The cloud cover draped itself over Trinidad for the day and the humidity clung to Port-of-Spain like a woollen blanket. Com- bined with the deep green-spiced pitch, conditions were ex- tremely demanding, sometimes painfully so. The Australians were far from tip-top psychological shape, as Michael Slater (0), Taylor (2) and Mark Waugh (2) trudged back to the dressing room in the first nine overs of the game. Slater shaped to play a defensive stroke against Courtney Walsh (2-46), was caught in two minds and watched the ball slide from his bat to wicketkeeper Junior Murray. Jimmy Adams, the best of professional cricketers, held the first of his two slick catches at bat-pad from Taylor five minutes later, and Mark Waugh was settling down when he weakened and pur- sued Ambrose to nudge the catch behind. In his 100th Test, David Boon (18) smacked a pull shot and square cut from Walsh to the fence only to be deceived by Ambrose`s slower delivery, Richardson lunging for the thigh-high catch at third slip. Greg Blewett (17) appeared a genuine international again, looking more comfortable than at any time since his centuries against England, but was caught behind when he glanced an excellent insw- inger. Thanks :: Phil Wilkins, Sydney Morning Herald. Contributed by David.Mar (mar@Physics.usyd.edu.au) ====> Day 1, more Ambrose burst has Australia in disarray - Peter Deeley A REJUVENATED Curtly Ambrose shook the life out of the Australian batting in Trinidad yesterday and looked as if he might have been about to do the same to Steve Waugh until dragged away by his captain Richie Richardson. In a devastating opening 12-over spell to the third Test, Ambrose collected three wickets, as many as he had taken in the first two games, reducing Australia to 31 for four. He marred his day, how- ever, with histrionics that incurred a mild rebuke from the match referee Majid Khan. After reviewing the events Khan decided no official action was necessary. Steve Waugh is very much the "villain" of the Australian piece after that disputed catch which dismissed Trinidad`s Brian Lara in the first Test. In the practice nets he had been heckled by locals who shouted "cheat" and "robber" and had to be escorted away by a security guard. Ambrose clearly harbours similar feelings. After one short ball which Waugh uncomfortably dodged, the bowler walked up to within two feet of the batsman and the pair indulged in some verbal ex- changes. Ambrose showed no inclination to go even when his captain ran up and eventually Richardson had to take him by the arm and drag him away. Umpire David Shepherd walked down the pitch to help end the impasse, whispered something to Ambrose and helped him on his way with a pat on the bottom. The wicket had more than its fair share of devil But Waugh, a hard, resilient character, was in no way disconcert- ed, even when Kenneth Benjamin hit him a couple of nasty blows on the elbow. Waugh brought up his half-century, and the Australian hundred, off 74 balls with his fifth boundary - stepping down the pitch to Courtney Walsh and scything a delivery square to the fence. Not a single member of the opposition applauded: the crowd booed. Richardson won the toss and by the time rain halted play after 55 minutes Australia were 31 for three. The wicket had more than its fair share of devil, although several batsmen were out to poor shots. Michael Slater faced only three balls, seeking to withdraw his bat from a climbing delivery from Walsh but leaving enough show- ing to get the finest of edges. That was in the second over and immediately at the other end Ambrose, cleverly holding a delivery back, had Mark Taylor pushing forward and flicking the easiest of catches to short leg. Australia were two for two by the 13th ball of the game. By the ninth over Mark Waugh too had gone, pushing at a lifting ball from Ambrose and Junior Murray took the catch one-handed in front of first slip. David Boon brought all his fortitude to his 100th Test but was turned square by the movement of the ball once too often and Richardson took a diving catch at third slip. Greg Blewett got an inside edge and Richardson again took the catch, this time after the ball rebounded from Murray`s gloves. Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk) Contributed by The Management (help@cricinfo.com) ====> Day 2, 22 Apr 95 The pigeon may have hung an albatross around the West Indies` neck after 14 years of Caribbean Test supremacy yesterday at Queens Park Oval in Trinidad. Having analysed the West Indies` dissection of Australia for 128 on a grisly, green operating table of a pitch on Friday, fast bowler Glenn McGrath (6-47) responded with his own surgical precision in the dismissal of the West Indies for 136. To complete an inspiring day of Australian revival, Mark Taylor (11 not out) and Michael Slater (9 not out) calmly ran before the storm front of the new ball for nine overs to finish at 20 without loss in the second innings. McGrath, 25, a two-metre tall bush bloke from Narromine, held his press conference barefoot and in shirt and shorts yesterday, hardly the vision splendid of Australia`s knight in shining ar- mour. But with the Ashes new-ball pair of Craig McDermott and Damien Fleming injured and back in Australia, that is how ``Pigeon`` McGrath has emerged in the Caribbean, having won the man-of-the- match award in Australia`s first Test win in Barbados with 8-114 and now a candidate for the same honour in Trinidad. Coach Bob Simpson and skipper Taylor called for a fast bowler to step forward when McDermott jumped off the seawall in Georgetown and landed on the wrong foot. McGrath has responded with 15 wick- ets in three Tests at an average of 16. Three days remain of the Trinidad match. In two days, 20 wickets have fallen for 284 runs. The radical difference between the days was that the first was reduced to three hours` play in high humi- dity, low cloud and lengthening rain showers. On the second day, the clouds fell away until mid-afternoon, there was a cooling wind off the Northern Range and no rain to spoil a fascinating encounter. The pitch was the common denomina- tor in two days of intensely difficult batting, continuing to seam maliciously enough to trouble all. McGrath sat in the players` box and scrutinised the West Indies` attack on Friday, observing how Curtly Ambrose (5-45), Courtney Walsh (3-50) and Winston Benjamin (1-13) bowled a fuller length to avoid being cut or pulled with the ball digging into the pitch and standing up. With several hundred Australian spectators following the team`s progress, McGrath is still coming to grips with the personal war chant - ``Ooh, aah, Glenn McGrath!`` - reverberating around the boundary. ``It`s something I`ve never experienced before,`` he said. ``It started in Barbados. Hopefully, we`ll bring the cup home for them. We`re real confident. We are here to win, and that`s ex- actly what we`re going to do. The guys are pretty keyed up. If we nail this Test, it will be great. It`s a pretty tense dressing room. The main thing is that everyone wants everyone else to do well. The attitude could not be better.`` Until now, Mark Taylor has preferred Paul Reiffel (2-26) and Brendon Julian (0-24) with the new ball. Just before the West In- dies began their innings, he informed McGrath that he and the constantly admirable Reiffel would have the responsibility. That suited McGrath, who relishes the role of No 1 strike bowler, denied him when McDermott and Fleming are in the team. In 21.5 overs he dismissed Richie Richardson (2), Brian Lara (24), Keith Arthurton (5), Junior Murray (13), Curtly Ambrose (1) and Court- ney Walsh (14). While there was a measure of good fortune in the dismissal of Richardson, with English umpire David Shepherd ruling him out caught via a shirt sleeve, the late-dipping delivery which ricocheted from Lara`s bat to first slip Taylor was an absolute gem. Ambrose and Walsh are no longer mocking him when he bounces them, gyrates and stares as in Barbados. He won one battle. There is still a long way to travel for the Frank Worrell Trophy. The West Indians are frustrated. Their demeanour was downcast when they entered their hotel. Yet, when Jimmy Adams (42) and Carl Hooper (21) were together at 3-87, odds of between 7-1 and 14-1 were available for an Australian win. Steve Waugh (1-19) won his mental battle again with Hooper, tempting him into a fatal hook to Reiffel on the fence. The Victorian paceman, bowling with flawless precision, then sliced a ball across Adams for the catch to Mark Waugh, ending 2 1/2 hours of concentration. Steve Waugh`s rare resilience for an unbeaten 63 made an Aus- tralian win a possibility. For just over three hours, taking heavy blows on the elbow and forefinger, he was the focal point of attention including an eyeballing within an arm`s reach of Am- brose, before Richardson physically dragged his fast bowler away. An exchange of oaths brought Ambrose slavering along the pitch just after lunch, an action which led to an interview of the players by referee Majid Khan. No fines were imposed, but the photographs were exceptional. A lead of 200-250 may be adequate in this low-scoring match. Even before the West Indies batted, Waugh said: ``If we`re good enough, we`ll win. If we want it, we`ll win.`` No-one is ar- guing. Thanks :: Phil Wilkins, Sydney Morning Herald. Contributed by David.Mar (mar@Physics.usyd.edu.au) ====> Day 3, 23 Apr 95 Australians humbled by Ambrose`s accuracy - Peter Deeley EXTRAORDINARY hardly seems an adequate description of the dramas which have rocked Trinidad`s Queens Park Oval in this third Test. They culminated yesterday in Australia being bowled out for 105 in their second innings to lose by nine wickets. Thus the West Indies levelled the series at 1-1 with more than two days to spare. It was a turn of events made even more remarkable by the fact that when play began the consensus was that Australia were on top. That view failed to account for yet another astonishing per- formance from Curtly Ambrose, the man who had been so out of sorts in the first two Tests that there were hints he might be dropped here to recover his rhythm. The bad news for England is that the big man is back on song. His appearance yesterday precipitated an Australian slide as devas- tating as an alpine avalanche, five wickets going down in 15 balls. Ambrose -the only bowler in the game to hit the stumps - took three of those wickets for no runs in eight deliveries and had a match return of nine for 65. As calypso bands noisily demonstrated and the crowd chanted "what can the matter be", there was no happier - or more relieved -man than Richie Richardson. After an uneasy start when the West Indies set out in pursuit of the 98 needed for victory, Richardson`s footwork began to twinkle in the old accustomed manner. The under-prepared pitch still carried its green tinge yesterday but the sun appeared to have marginally eased conditions for bat- ting. Only one man, Michael Slater, at the outset of the day, got a ball from Courtney Walsh which reared off a length and took a glove to slip. But that was a critical strike for the West Indies and their cause was helped when Steve Waugh took a bad knock on the hand trying to pull Kenny Benjamin. The injury hampered him as he failed to get on top of the next delivery he received, becoming one of 10 to fall to slip catches in the game. Australia began 12 runs ahead and the positive start from Slater and Mark Taylor suggested that here was a partnership to turn the game. Benjamin went round the wicket and immediately straightened one which Taylor edged to the keeper -three runs short of his 5,000 in the Test game. Boon failed to mark his 100th Test with a notable score, cutting Walsh to gully in the following over. The Waugh twins came to- gether and Steve was straight into his first-innings tempo, driv- ing Kenny Benjamin for two of his three boundaries, hitting 21 off 19 balls. Ambrose took over from Walsh at the pavilion end and brought one back at Mark Waugh, who was leg before on his stumps. Four balls on and Ambrose bowled Ian Healy. Another over, another setback. Greg Blewett flashed at a wide, climbing delivery from Kenny Benjamin and Murray took an easy edge. Then it was Brendon Julian`s turn to have his stumps spread-eagled. Shane Warne and Paul Reiffel nudged some invaluable runs in a stand of 18 for the ninth wicket but Ambrose and Walsh quickly finished them off inside 10 minutes after lunch. Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk) Contributed by The Management (help@cricinfo.com) ====> Day 3, more West Indian captain Richie Richardson was as scathing in his con- demnation of the Queen`s Park Oval pitch as if he had lost the third Test. The West Indies romped home by nine wickets after Australia`s second innings 105-run annihilation in less than three hours yes- terday, levelling the series one-all just before tea on the third day. The winning captain said of the pitch: ``It was not satisfactory. I would not look forward to playing a Test match on a wicket like that. To me, it`s unfair for the players, especially for the batsmen who have to go out there and play on it. In a Test match you look forward to a really hard contest. Even though it was an interesting match and we probably enjoyed it, I don`t believe you should play a Test match on a wicket like that.`` Rival captain Mark Taylor, who was disappointed but not dispirit- ed by the loss, said: ``I have never seen a wicket that wet on day one of a Test match in my life. The wicket was under- prepared. There was no doubt about it. That didn`t decide the winner of the game. They played the better cricket and deserved to win the game.`` Taylor pointed to Steve Waugh`s magnificent, lone fighting hand of 63 in three hours as evidence of the inadequacies of the pitch. ``One half-century in four innings suggests the pitch was almost impossible for batting,`` he said. ``It didn`t matter how good a batsman you were, you needed luck out there. The wicket produced something you could not handle.`` The dismissal of Michael Slater, one of the most gifted and ex- citing opening batsmen in the world, for 15, eight minutes after the Test resumed yesterday, was the turning point of the match, according to Taylor. Slater received a ball which rose fiercely off a length from Courtney Walsh. It was an unplayable delivery and Slater managed only to deflect it for a comfortable catch in the slips cordon. Taylor (30) played some bold shots as did Steve Waugh (21) later, but when Kenneth Benjamin fiddled a leg-cutter from the edge of Taylor`s bat, it started an avalanche. In an hour, Australia lost Taylor, David Boon (9), Steve Waugh, Mark Waugh (7), Ian Healy (0), Greg Blewett (2) and Brendon Juli- an (0) - seven wickets for 35 runs from 63 balls. In the humidity and with the pitch having sweated overnight, man-of-the-match Curtly Ambrose (5-45 and 4-20) and Courtney Walsh (3-50 and 3-35) played havoc with the Australians. With the final Test to begin on Saturday at Sabina Park in Kings- ton, Jamaica, Taylor put on a bold face, his main concern being his players` state of mind. ``Obviously, the guys will be disappointed,`` he said. ``I hope they`re not devastated because these are the sort of days you can have in Test cricket, especially against the West Indies on that sort of wicket. They`ve won today, only one day of cricket real- ly. We`ve proved we can mix it with them, but unfortunately to- day was a bad day for us. We haven`t lost the series yet. And we have a good chance of winning it if we play as we have up to to- day, especially if Sabina Park is a good, hard wicket.`` The damage may have been done. Ambrose has regained his flame of enthusiasm, if not all of his former speed, and will be hard to keep away from the Australians` throats. Richardson said team manager Andy Roberts, the now amiable former Test firebrand, had called a special meeting of the team on Sa- turday night. He did not spare the players. ``He was very angry,`` Richardson said. ``We all were and we all chipped in. We really had a go at ourselves, at our batting, in particular, and it paid off today. The bowlers have been doing very well. We knew that if we bowled a line and kept to our plan, we would bowl Australia out relatively cheaply. With the calibre of bowler we had, we thought it would be difficult for them to score over 150 runs.`` Thanks :: Phil Wilkins, Sydney Morning Herald. ====> more Sunday, bloody Sunday. On the day that Curtly Ambrose and Court- ney Walsh brushed right fists in a symbolic gesture of Caribbean alliance as they walked off Queen`s Park Oval, an article on Black Power appeared in Trinidad`s _Sunday Express_. ``Twenty-five years gone... 1970-1995. How you feel?`` the head- line ran. In a cricketing context, the headline was off-beam, for the phi- losophy of the West Indian fast-bowling brotherhood was born in Australia. It was in Perth on the 1975-76 tour that the West Indies grasped the significance of the four-man pace attack theory. Beaten by eight wickets in Brisbane, they chose Andy Roberts, Keith Boyce, Michael Holding and Bernard Julien for Perth and won by an innings and 87 runs. Opener Roy Fredericks made 169, the pacemen took 19 wickets and the seed of destruction was sown. Yesterday, as spectators walked, stared and played on the Test pitch in the warm sunshine, the spectacle of the shaggy carpet of turf on the three-day-old Test pitch was something unique to me in 27 years` coverage of some 200 Tests. Three days before the Test, the soil of the pitch sunk under thumb pressure as if it were plasticine. The day before the Test, the former Guyanese fast bowler Colin Croft said there was ``much too much grass`` on the pitch and wondered how it could be shaved off. It never was. Two days prior to the game, the former Test opening batsman Joey Carew, chief executive of the club which runs Queen`s Park Oval, asked blandly about the state of the pitch. A 100-metre stroll from his office would have informed him. The captains` comments after the Test confirmed the belief. It is not good enough to say that accidents happen, that the groundsman got it wrong, that he saturated the strip and then was caught out by the rain. It is autumn in Trinidad. It is not adequate to describe the showers as ``a hiccup in the dry season`` as did the _Trinidad Guardian_, ``welcome as they have been for the landscape``. These accidents happen in Trinidad time after time. They never occur in Barbados or Antigua and, hopefully, not in Jamaica. Then, winning a Test or a series becomes a gamble, just a flick of a coin. There is too much at stake, too many good men and too much good money invested in the sport to turn it into a game of two-up. Trinidad people are outstanding judges of the game of cricket. In the circumstances, it was pathetic that one group found humour yesterday by singing: ``Oh, dear, what can the matter be? Oh, dear, what can the matter be? Australia bring a s... side.`` The West Indies won the toss and the Test in three days on a to- tally unsatisfactory, unfair pitch. Australia won the first Test in Barbados in three days on a dry, totally fair pitch. Obviously, this statement will be read by some as the whine of a bad loser. It may also sound like the second-day protest of the local cricket journalist who complained that there should be no bouncers delivered when bowlers are batting. ``Wake up, Rip Van Winkle,`` suggested _Herald_ columnist and former Test fast bowler Geoff Lawson. ``Where have you been for the last 20 years?`` More relevantly, the ICC referee Majid Khan should have something to say on the state of the pitch to the International Cricket Council. Regrettably, if his clam-like performance on the mid- pitch confrontation between Curtly Ambrose and Steve Waugh is any indication, the silence will be deafening. Probably any such report would disappear on a Caribbean tide, a fate similar to the affidavits resting in a Lord`s pigeon hole provided by the Australian cricketers allegedly approached to throw the first Test in Karachi last year. Or has that been for- gotten? Come down out of your ivory tower, David Richards (ICC chairman), and start earning your 70,000 pounds ($155,000). Thanks :: Phil Wilkins, Sydney Morning Herald. Copntributed by David.Mar (mar@physics.usyd.edu.au)