Date-stamped : 09 May95 - 14:27 West Indies v Australia, TEST 4 Sabina Park, Kingston, Jamaica, 29, 30 April, 1, 3, 4 May 1995 ====> Day 1, 29 Apr 95 Moments after the ``blind man``, Richie Richardson, struck his 16th Test century and ninth hundred against Australia, a pair of ragged vultures drifted over the George Headley Stand at Sabina Park yesterday. Throughout a magnetising first day to the fourth Test, Richardson threatened to splinter his rivals` bones on the rack, leaving their dream of the Frank Worrell Trophy bleaching in the sun for the Kingston birds of prey. Yet by stumps Mark Taylor`s sinewy, scorched Australians had dismissed the West Indies for a modest 265, claiming the last nine wickets for 162 after a pulsating, run-a-minute century stand by Richardson and Brian Lara. ``Oh, it was a great day,`` former Australian captain Allan Bord- er glowed last night. ``But it looked ugly for a while.`` Now, with Sabina Park`s shimmering glass face of a pitch drying out and expected to roll into a faster second-day strip in the manner of the WACA Ground wicket in Perth, the ultimate demands are about to be made of Australia`s batsmen. Similar mental and physical interrogations of Richardson have been applied in this grand series, not least by Antiguan kinsmen who questioned his capacity to continue in Test cricket and who openly asserted he had lost the vision which made him the West Indies` best batsman after Viv Richards, a ``blind man`` as they claimed at St Johns. With Lara now the unchallenged young champion, Richardson is no longer the best of the West Indies, but at 33 he still has genuine class, judgment, courage, time to play fierce off-side blazes and a refusal to walk away when many of his teammates can- not stand the inferno. Richardson had not hit a Test century since Merv Hughes got him for 109 in Sydney almost 30 months ago. In the intervening period, because of a mysterious illness and blood disorder, he has appeared in only 10 more Tests before this series. After his fourth successive flick of the coin landed heads - Tay- lor called ``tails`` in each Test - Richardson admitted some con- fusion on the West Indies` part whether they should bat, as was generally expected, his concern being the pitch-long labyrinth of hairline cracks beneath the sheen. Deep-seated suspicions of Shane Warne`s spin on the fourth and fifth days of the Test even- tually swayed them to bat. There is little glamour or glitz about Australia`s three-man pace attack of Paul Reiffel, Brendon Julian and Glenn McGrath, but with the admirable Warne bowling under severe handicap with a bruised right thumb, and the ever-shrewd Steve Waugh taking 2-1 in six deliveries with the new ball, of all things, they exposed the West Indies` batting limitations. Having cast off minor cramps after Reiffel trapped him leg before wicket when he was slow in moving forward to an off-cutter after almost six hours concentration, Richardson was generous about his rivals. ``They have bowled very well, every single Test match,`` he said. ``They`ve been very consistent. People tend to under-estimate them because they are not big names. But they do the job. They bowl effectively and they put the ball in the right spot. ``McGrath has been effective and with a bit of pace. Reiffel has been very, very accurate and bowls straight. Julian is a bit dif- ferent, a bit awkward being a left-armer, going across, sometimes bringing it back. And Shane Warne is probably the best leg- spinner in the world. It`s a very good attack and you have to give them credit.`` Understandably, Richardson was far from satisfied with his team`s batting, saying: ``We`ll have to work hard to restrict Australia to less than 265. I always enjoy playing against the Australians. They are very tough, very competitive.`` Richardson has grave suspicions about the pitch, which is far more cracked than last year when England were in the Caribbean, the pieces being queasily loose to the touch. Taylor`s misfortune at the toss defied belief. Adding a rod to Australia`s back, Warne played only because of the importance of the Test, his thumb bruised marrow-deep from Curtly Ambrose`s rising delivery a week earlier. But as the figures danced in the mirror of the pitch, the ex- traordinary scenario of the second-ball dismissal of opener Stuart Williams flashed back, the hapless Nevitian`s head rocking back as Reiffel`s delivery snapped off the seam for Greg Blewett`s diving catch in close. Warne`s jubilation was understandable when he claimed the wicket of Lara, the little champion pushing half-forward and glancing an inside edge to Ian Healy, diving around the corner on the leg side. Healy and Warne celebrated while South African umpire Karl Liebenberg deliberated, Lara eventually lightening his load by trudging away, the first occasion he has been dismissed by Warne. Once again Lara provided some memories for the occasion. His ear- ly back-foot pivot to punch the ball through square leg from Ju- lian was a treat; even better was a glide to the long boundary at forward square leg from Reiffel. But it was not fault-free. Squeezed in between was an edge at 26 from McGrath which landed in front of Taylor at slip; a misguided chip shot at 41 which Lara spooned over McGrath; and another edge from Warne at 57 which nipped between keeper and slip. For the batsman ranked - by the intricacies of computerisation - No 1 in the world, Jimmy Adams` dismissal for 20 bordered on sa- crilege. Settling in again after lunch with the volatility draining from the pitch, he leaned back and pulled a gently ris- ing ball from Julian to Michael Slater at wide mid-on. With Carl Hooper`s emergence, Steve Waugh inevitably entered the bowling fray. On this occasion, however, it was not Hooper who was almost undone, but Richardson. A short, sharp delivery tempted the West Indian captain and he flung a hook shot at it, realising the danger too late as Slater made the bravest diving attempt to get to the catch behind square leg, coming up with dust and grass-seed. Moments before tea, Hooper failed his team, attempting a forcing stroke to Julian and lancing a shoulder-high catch to Mark Waugh at second slip. As so often, Keith Arthurton began nicely, danced down and drove Warne over the extra cover fence for six, then ran a low catch to Healy from McGrath, the best of the bowlers. McGrath`s late-afternoon bid to deprive Richardson of his century indicated again how he has adopted Craig McDermott`s mantle as the major strike bowler, with two bouncers, a chest-high delivery, a slower ball and a lovely yorker in an over. And the Jamaicans booed him. Thanks :: Phil Wilkins, Sydney Morning Herald. Contributed by David.Mar (mar@physics.usyd.edu.au) ====> Day 2, 30 Apr 95 The Jamaican capital has been razed by earthquakes, burned by fire and rattled by hurricanes. Now a twin quake has moved the West Indies slightly off the foundations of 15 years of interna- tional cricket supremacy. Without a tremble on the Richter scale, Sydney twins Mark and Steve Waugh set off a landslide of 231 runs in just under four hours at Sabina Park to project Australia into a 56-run first- innings lead after two days. A week after Bloody Sunday in Trinidad, when Australia were levelled for 105 and beaten by nine wickets by tea on the third day, the tourists are closing in on the West Indies and the Frank Worrell Trophy for the first time since 1978. The 29-year-old Waugh brothers are the unlikeliest twins. Facially, there is a strong resemblance, but that have the most markedly different dispositions. Steve (110 not out) is intense, fiercely patriotic and professional, not one to tolerate fools. Mark (126) is more cavalier, more natural, a gambler with a gift from the gods, yet as modest and self-effacing as Steve. In a blood and guts battle Mark is the slick boxer, Steve the iron-hard fighter - which is essentially the reason Steve was chosen for Test cricket five years before his twin. In the match which Steve described as the most important of their lives, the brothers registered twin tons for the first time in their Test careers and only their second century partnership in a Test after their 153-run stand at Edgbaston against England in 1993. Each celebrated his eighth Test century, Steve in his 76th Test, Mark in his 48th. They drew comparisons between Sabina Park`s grassless desert- coloured wicket block and the perfectly true pitch of the WACA Ground in Perth where they have prospered, their unbeaten 464-run partnership for NSW against Western Australia in 1990-91 being the high-water mark of numerous successful trips west. ``We bat really well in Perth together,`` Steve said. ``If one gets going, it really eggs the other on. We complement each other well if we get going. Today we scored quickly and it got out of their control before they knew it.`` Neither could explain why they so rarely blossom together for Australia, although Steve vowed: ``It`s about to change.`` ``It should set us up for the rest of the Test,`` said Mark. ``I have to rate it the best hundred I`ve scored. One-all coming into the last Test... if you are ever going to score a Test century this is the time and place to do it. With the pressure on us to- day, we needed to put a partnership together and we did. They bowled short, and if they can`t get you out bowling short, you`ve really got them.`` The day hinged on the inexplicable error of wicket-keeper Court- ney Browne in his maiden Test. When Steve Waugh was 42, moments after ringing up the century stand, he nudged a thigh-high catch from Kenneth Benjamin to Browne`s right. The Barbadian got both hands to the catch and, to the disbelief of spectators and the consternation of teammates, knocked the ball to the ground. It was the simplest catch he will ever miss. The Waughs came together when Australia`s innings was buckling at 3-73. Mark`s form has drifted with wind and water recently, but Steve has been Australia`s best batsman of the series, perhaps the best individual of either side. Refusing to hook, Steve Waugh spends half the time ducking or, more often than not, bouncing into the air, knocking the ball down into the dirt, standing higher for more flexibility against the bouncers. Regardless of his runs, Waugh is still considered vulnerable to the short ball and immediately after lunch, at 3-97, Courtney Walsh came around the wicket with three slips, a leg slip, Jimmy Adams on one knee at silly point and Keith Arthurton at short leg. But Richie Richardson`s expectation of the pitch rolling out into a drier, faster wicket than on the first day failed to material- ise and Waugh emerged unscathed. There were bumpers and short- pitched balls galore, but without the variable lateral movement and steepling bounce of Michael Slater`s third-morning dismissal in Trinidad. Having seen West Indian attacks massacre Australian batsmen since the Perth test in 1975-76, it was fascinating to watch their com- posure become frayed as the Waugh partnership flowed on. After lunch the extraordinary spectacle occurred of Antiguan paceman Winston Benjamin seated near the wicket, distraught at the Jamaican crowd`s rowdy barracking of his bowling, seemingly weeping in frustration, consoled by teammates Adams and Carl Hooper. Benjamin is ready game for the Jamaicans, who scorn his efforts in the field. And there appeared dissension about fast bowler Curtly Ambrose not bowling between tea and stumps. But Australia appeared doomed after Adams snapped up a reflex catch from Mark Taylor, David Boon was ruled out caught off his helmet by umpire Steve Bucknor, and Slater hooked once too often after 104 minutes of derring-do. The pitch was quick but basically true, and the Waughs cut and drove magnificently. Mark struck 12 boundaries in 276 minutes un- til off-spinner Hooper finally cranked a ball out of the rough for Adams` catch in close. Steve hit 11 boundaries and a six in 260 minutes. Thanks :: Phil Wilkins, Sydney Morning Herald. Contributed by David.Mar (mar@physics.usyd.edu.au) ====> Day 2, more Waugh brothers go to war to wrest initiative from West Indies - Peter Deeley THE Waugh twins have given Australia a wonderful opportunity to beat West Indies in this deciding Test and break the Caribbean`s long period of dominance in world cricket. By the end of the second day here, the tourists were 321 for four, a lead of 56. They owed everything to Mark with 126, his eigth hundred, and Steve, who is unbeaten on 110. Double-century partnerships against West Indies on their home grounds have been about as rare as snow on the local beaches in recent times. These two put on 231 in 33/4 hours for the fourth wicket and become one of a select band of four brothers to have scored centuries in the same innings. The partisan crowded stands were stunned into unaccustomed silence and even the reggae bands were muted at the sight of their side taking this kind of beating. It was a toothless per- formance by a quartet of fast bowlers which hardly merits com- parison with the great West Indies attacks of the past. Courtney Walsh, with two early wickets, alone was prepared to at- tack the stumps. Curtly Ambrose, lucky to be given David Boon`s scalp when the ball appeared to have been caught off his helmet, seems to have lost that zip he rediscovered in Trinidad. As for the Benjamins - Winston and Kenny - they were wayward in length and dished out a high ration of no balls. In 34 Tests together, Steve and Mark had only once before shared in a three-figure stand, at Edgbaston in 1993, and this further example of brotherhood could not have come at a more opportune moment. Seasoned observers here think Richie Richardson should have put Australia in Australia had lost their first three batsmen for a mere 73 in the opening session and with the crowd at this stage figuratively baying for blood every time Walsh and Ambrose ran in to bowl, Sa- bina Park was no place for the faint-hearted. Knowing Steve does not relish the short-pitched ball, West Indies gave him a feast of sharply rising deliveries but he was not to be intimidated. On a pitch that is getting slower and easier this was not intelligent bowling. The degree of pressure the Waughs exerted can be gauged by the fact that in their partnership were 23 boundaries, a six and two fives. The six came when Steve hit Carl Hooper over midwicket. Seasoned observers here think Richie Richardson should have put Australia in when he won the fourth toss of the series. Clive Lloyd, who has just arrived, says the wicket gets easier on the second and third days. Mark Taylor would love to have a de- cision to make. Calling wrong four Tests in a row, he would have batted first without hesitation. The cricket throughout the rubber has been intense in character, nowhere more than in the catching. Taylor believes that has con- tributed to the fact that only two innings totals have passed 300 and the Australian captain soon had cause to rue his opponents` brilliance. As early as the fourth over Taylor - having just passed 5,000 Test runs - middled a delivery from Walsh and it looked set for the mid-wicket fence. Jimmy Adams, fielding at forward short leg, took a prodigious catch three paces from the bat - and there was a moment of stunned silence from both fielder and batsman before they realised what had happened. Boon was unlucky but Michael Slater had no excuse, tempted once to often by Walsh to go for the hook with two men out on the boundary. Brian Lara ran in 10 yards and threw himself off the floor to take another quite breathtaking catch. Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk) Contributed by The Management (help@cricinfo.com) ====> Day 3, 1 May 95 West Indies shot down by Reiffel`s quick burst - Peter Deeley WEST INDIES, cricket`s unofficial world champions, were reeling on the ropes last night at 63 for three in their second innings, still 203 behind Australia. Both their openers and Brian Lara - who made nought - were back in the dressing room inside 11 overs, all falling to Paul Reiffel. It was an explosive end to a day in which a heroic 91/4-hour dou- ble century from Steve Waugh had tightened the grip which is slowly but surely strangling the home side. Today is a rest day but it seems that only rain - which has been threatening the region lately - can stop West Indies from losing this deciding Test and the series 2-1, thus ending their unbeaten 15-year record. Richardson and Stuart Williams had begun West Indies` reply - 266 behind on first innings - with an hour left in such a fashion that you might have thought they were in the driving seat. In six overs 36 runs had come up and Richardson pulled Brendon Julian for six. Then he played early at Paul Reiffel and offered an easy caught-and-bowled. In Reiffel`s next over, Lara went back on his stumps and the delivery scooted through low. Walking away Lara appeared to pro- pel the ball, lying at his feet, off the square. Then Stuart Williams chopped the fast bowler on to his stumps, giving Reiffel three wickets for 18 in his opening spell. Waugh`s innings gave him his eighth Test century and his highest score Waugh`s innings gave him his eighth Test century and his highest score; and he considers it the most important innings of his life. Rarely can so crucial an innings have had a less propitious start. On the first night of this game Waugh woke up in his hotel room here to find a thief on his hands and knees going through the player`s belongings. Waugh shouted and the thief fled empty-handed but there was lit- tle sleep for the player for the rest of the night. Despite that he and his twin brother Mark went out next day to add 231 for the fourth wicket. Mark was out shortly before the close on the second evening for 126. Mark`s eighth century had all the grace and panache one associ- ates with "Junior" (his team name for he is all of four minutes younger than Steve.) But if you are looking for a battler to take on West Indies at their own game then your man is Waugh the Elder. It appears he would rather die than surrender the hard-won territory of his crease. So it was yesterday where he faced a barrage of short-pitched balls but was always up on his toes to receive the next one. Greg Blewett, too, was prepared to take on the quick bowlers and with his first half-century of the series he looked much more the youngster who scored successive centuries against England in the winter. Waugh was content to drop anchor and let his partner make the running, hitting only one boundary in the morning session. Blewett, by comparison, hit nine; two of them scorching cover drives off Kenny Benjamin`s opening deliveries of the day. The pair had added 113 when in desperation Richie Richardson called on his seventh bowler, Keith Arthurton. With his second delivery Arthurton`s left-arm slows offered Blewett a long hop. He pulled for the empty spaces on legside but found Winston Benjamin waiting low down at midwicket to give Arthurton his first Test wicket. After lunch Ian Healy did not stay long, edging low to slip and Jimmy Adams took another of those sharp catches at short leg for which he is becoming famous to dismiss Brendon Julian but Reiffel gave Waugh valuable suport in a 73-run stand for the eighth wick- et. Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk) Contributed by The Management (help@cricinfo.com) ====> Day 3, more The John Williamson song True Blue thundered through the Aus- tralian cricketers` hotel after Steve Waugh`s epic double century under fire and Paul Reiffel`s extraction of gold from clay brought them face-to-face with immortality yesterday. Williamson sought a musical definition of Australian patriotism, asking, among other things, if it meant ``standing by your mate when he`s in a fight? Or just Vegemite?`` Patriotism emerged in different ways on the Island in the Sun as a youth in a scrimmage of Australian fans bounced an Australian Rules football on the pitch after Waugh reached 200 in the third Test against the West Indies. No-one took exception to the unknown lad`s temerity, even if a mate, whose Australian flag fluttered on to the pitch, then recovered it by trampling all over the pitch, his great hobnail clodhoppers doing Shane Warne`s cause immeasurable good. At the end of three momentous days, Australia held a 203-run lead after amassing 531 to the West Indies` 265 and then having Reif- fel strike in three consecutive overs for the wickets of Richie Richardson (14), Brian Lara (0) and Stuart Williams (20) to leave the West Indies gasping at 3-63. In 22 minutes, Reiffel took 3-5 in 16 balls, including the prized trophy of Lara, driven back and trapped by a low-skidding delivery. But the patriotism that showed above all else was that of Waugh, the blue discolouration spreading from his hand to his left wrist beneath the strapping from three bad blows, another bandage on his right arm near his elbow, and two forefingers which he wished he did not own. Only three other Australians have hit double-centuries in the West Indies, and they don`t come any better. Neil Harvey made 204 in 1954-55; Bill Lawry 210 at Bridggetown in 1964-65; and Bob Simpson 201 in the same innings. ``It`s worth it,`` Waugh said later. ``You don`t make runs against these guys without copping a few. I`m more than happy to be very sore after a game against these guys because you know you have scored some runs. I know I`ve played well. I know I`ve got 200. It`s my biggest Test, the biggest innings of my life, but it won`t really sink in until we win the Test match.`` What did sink in was the fact that he was embraced near the wick- et by the lumbering form of former Test teammate Greg Ritchie, one of about 20 Australians who ran on to the field to congratu- late him on his 9 1/4-hour feat of endurance. Ritchie told Waugh: ``Well played, mate. You`re a legend.`` Waugh is such a competitor that he did not consider the number of short-pitched West Indian deliveries excessive, let alone intimi- datory, although Allan Border remarked on television that he had never seen such a storm of short balls. ``As a player I don`t mind it,`` Waugh said. ``It`s part of Test cricket. That`s what it`s all about. That`s the most enjoyable part of Test cricket. It doesn`t get any tougher than that. You really see what you`re made of, I suppose. It`s the biggest chal- lenge.`` Throughout his innings, as Australia built a 266-run first- innings lead, angular new wicketkeeper Courtney Browne watched and rued his every movement, having dropped the simplest two- handed catch from Waugh at 42. Kenneth Benjamin was the bowler who lost the wicket, only to gain it eventually with a tremendous delivery, which exploded off the strip, striking Waugh on the hand and looping to Lara at slip. Waugh struck 17 fours, a six and a five in the first double- century of his 76-Test career. He shared a splendid 140-minute, 113-run partnership with Greg Blewett (69) and then a 74-run stand with the admirably tough Reiffel (23), before last man Glenn McGrath helped him through the rough patch from 196 to 200 with an all-run four to fine leg. Waugh has had his critics, and, like an elephant, he did not for- get. ``I`ve used it to my advantage,`` he said. ``All the nega- tive stuff that`s gone on, it egged me on to play better. I thought: `Stay out here, score more runs, rub it in a bit more`.`` Of the West Indies` torment, with the rest day to contemplate the probability of Australia winning the match and reclaiming the Frank Worrell Trophy for the first time since 1978, Waugh said: ``The pitch is very uneven and there are cracks all over it. Shane will be a handful out there. I wouldn`t like to be in their shoes.`` With just over an hour of the day remaining, Reiffel`s success with the new ball on the ravaged brown pitch was beyond wildest expectation. Richardson drove a sharp, knee-high return catch in his fourth over; Lara received a ball which pitched on leg stump and scuttled under his guard in his fifth; and Williams slashed a delivery into his wicket in his sixth over. Earlier, when the Australians resumed as 4-321, Richardson took the second new ball immediately. If the West Indians considered the wicket of Blewett a formality, they were entirely wrong. The Ashes dual century-maker found the pitch he has been craving for in the Caribbean, one on which he could rock back and pull Curtly and Co. So assured was the batsman whose Test position was most in jeo- pardy, that by drinks he had lashed 40 runs to century-maker Waugh`s 10, content to sit back and offer fatherly advice at the end of each over. Thanks :: Phil Wilkins, Sydney Morning Herald. Contributed by David.Mar (mar@physics.su.oz.au) ====> Rest Day, 2 May 95 Australians fret as the rain sets in - Peter Deeley AS THUNDER and lightning rolled around Jamaica yesterday, Aus- tralia were again playing the role they least wanted on the rest day of this deciding Test: that of rain-maker. With storms breaking over the capital, Australian coach Bobby Simpson said: "There`s only one consolation. If it`s got to rain, let it be today. We seem to bring the wet to every drought-ridden island. "At least the forecast is good for the last two days of the game. But we`ve had this kind of worrying problem before in Kingston." The biggest worry for Australia as they stand on the verge of an historic win is that the covers at Sabina Park may not be able to protect the pitch. Four years ago Australia built up a big lead after three days only for storms on the rest day to make the pitch unplayable un- til late on the fifth. A draw resulted. A year earlier England were close to victory after the third day. Rest-day rain prevented play on the fourth and they had to wait until the final day before securing an opening Test win. The monsoonal rain can lift the covers and let rain seep under- neath In both cases the primitive ground covering contributed to the delays. As elsewhere in the Caribbean, Sabina Park uses tarpau- lins laid flat on the square but the monsoonal rain can lift the covers and let rain seep underneath. The West Indies, 203 runs behind with three second-innings wick- ets down, fear that if they lose for the first time in 15 years their more partisan supporters will hold them personally respon- sible. Brian Lara has already gone for nought, the leg before victim of a delivery from Paul Reiffel. He was seen afterwards to propel the ball with his foot as he walked away but match referee Majid Khan described it as "just frustration at a moment of high ten- sion". Australia`s Paul Reiffel, who has taken 14 wickets in the series, will join Lancashire League club Haslingden this summer. Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk) Contributed by The Management (help@*ogi.edu) ====> Day 4, 3 May 95 End of an era as Australia bring down West Indies - Peter Deeley THE high tide of Caribbean cricket finally ebbed away at Sabina Park in Jamaica yesterday as Australia achieved the win that gave them this series and the crown of unofficial world champions of the Test game. Australia took the series 2-1 and their innings and 53- run vic- tory was the West Indies`s biggest defeat in a decade. It also brought to an end their unbeaten home record stretching back 22 years. Within sight of the winning post Australian nerves were jangling as their previously superlative close fielding let them down with three easy missed chances. Ian Healy was twice guilty and when the two Courtneys - Browne and Walsh - were defying them in a ninth-wicket partnership of 32, the wicketkeeper let go another edge. Walsh finally committed suicide, skying Shane Warne into the covers where Greg Blewett took a catch looking into the sun. Only Winston Benjamin, in uncharacteristically stubborn mode with his second Test half-century this year, offered the resistance the West Indies needed if they were to do a Houdini act, having started the day still 203 runs behind with their first three batsmen back in the pavilion. Hot sunshine and clear skies replaced the rains of the rest day and the flood waters which covered Sabina Park had disappeared by the time Jimmy Adams and nightwatchman Benjamin started out on a Herculean task demanding more application than the West Indies batsmen have shown for many a day. The cracks that are common on this pitch had become fissures in places. They could only help the Australian attack as long as the quick bowlers did not fall into their opponents muddled-headed ways of trying to bounce the tourists out. Wisely they kept the ball well up, trying to find the cracks, and if the close fielders had taken their chances, Paul Reiffel`s three wickets on Monday evening would have blossomed into five by the 13th delivery of the morning. As Healy excitedly went into his appeal mode so the chance spilled to the floor Reiffel`s first three balls to the left-handed Adams pitched leg stump and jagged across the batsman. Healy had to take the first very wide to his left hand; the second took the edge of the bat and went straight as an arrow to the keeper. As Healy excitedly went into his appeal mode so the chance spilled to the floor. Benjamin faced the first ball of Reiffel`s next over and bottom- edged it at ideal catching height between Taylor at first slip and Mark Waugh at second. It was the type of catch coaches give their players at practice yet these two - surely in the top 10 close catchers in the world - watched as the chance sailed harm- lessly by. Benjamin chopped Glenn McGrath for three to bring up the fifty partnership and it was Adams who was the only man to go before lunch, Steve Waugh taking a low, fast catch at gully. Waugh was at the centre of the action again when he replaced Warne in the attack. If he was unhappy at a leg before claim against Benjamin turned down by umpire Steve Bucknor, Waugh was positively seething when Bucknor rejected a claim that Benjamin had got a touch to a delivery he chased down leg side. Benjamin chopped Reiffel soon after lunch to bring up his fifty, following close on his 85 against New Zealand earlier this year. But Reiffel`s next delivery was to end a gallant 21/2-hour fight, the ball coming back at Benjamin and a marginal decision went the bowler`s way. The West Indies could afford to give nothing away - but that is precisely what Carl Hooper did in Reiffel`s next over. He played him deep behind square but was beaten coming back for a risky second by a brilliant 50-yard throw by Brendon Julian which smashed the stumps first bounce. Keith Arthurton cross-batted Warne for a boundary and a six off successive balls but the bowler had his revenge, somewhat luckily when the next delivery turned ferociously and had him lbw. Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk) Contributed by The Management (help@*ogi.edu) ====> Day 4, more Australian captain Mark Taylor focused his attention on three players - Steve Waugh and pacemen Glenn McGrath and Paul Reiffel - when identifying the outstanding performers of the series. In his 76th Test, Waugh became only the fourth Australian in his- tory to hit a Test double century in the West Indies, after Neil Harvey, Bill Lawry and Bob Simpson. He finished with 429 runs at 107.25, being named man of the match at Sabina Park as well as winning a sports car as man of the series. It was typical of Waugh, bruised and battered though he was after his 555-minute double century, that he should be the man to swoop low in the gully for the neat two-handed catch from Jimmy Adams (18) to initiate the fourth-day collapse as the West Indies reeled from 4-134 to be all out for 213. In less than three hours, the ``homesters``, as they are termed, lost 6-79. The aggressive McGrath, the fast bowler who provided the metal- eating acid of the attack, claimed Adams` wicket, although it was his inexhaustible, relentless partner Reiffel who deserved it. Having sent the first ball of the day ricocheting past Adams` bat, Reiffel drew a tentative edge from the left-hander with his next delivery and Ian Healy, of all people, dropped the softest two-handed catch, leaning towards Taylor at slip. Remarkably, Healy lapsed again later in the day when he dropped an equally gentle catch off McGrath from Courtney Browne (31 not out) when the wicketkeeper was 17. McGrath bounced the West Indian fast bowlers up hill and down dale, from the first Test until the last. They never looked capa- ble of overcoming him and, although his barrage did not minimise their bumpers at the Australian batsmen, it was a constant rem- inder that the lanky NSw fast bowler would not be intimidated. McGrath was the policeman on the beat that Australia lacked on the 1991 tour of the West Indies. Courtney Walsh and Curtly Ambrose postured and pranced in Barba- dos, suggesting McGrath was out of his depth by whistling the ball around their helmeted ears. McGrath continued twisting their noses, and long before the end of the tour he had earned the respect of enemy and ally alike. He finished with 17 wickets at 21.71 and nobody would have begrudged him 20 wickets. Likewise, Reiffel bowled superbly (better, if anything, than McGrath) for less reward. Day in, day out, Reiffel was the ulti- mate professional in the heat and on the dry, deadpan pitches, accurate, frugal, grindingly hard, chiselling away with his off- cutters and outswingers. His economy was reflected in his 15 Test wickets at 17.53. Suddenly, Shane Warne`s tour looked rosier. He bowled into the rutted, disintegrating pitch at the George Headley Stand end of the ground, so scarred and broken on the leg side that Healy donned a batting helmet briefly to avoid having his teeth or nose broken. From 23.4 overs, Warne ripped through the tail for 4-70, his best return of the tour, making his four-Test haul a presentable 15 wickets at 27.07. Warne is an irrepressible soul. He was never doleful despite dif- ficulties on tour, first when he ricked his neck in a high-speed fall from the ``Big Banana`` in St Lucia, the yellow aquaplane towed behind a speedboat, and then when his right thumb was crushed by a Curtly Ambrose bouncer in the Trinidad Test. So severely bruised was the thumb that he might have withdrawn from the match had it not been such an epoch-making affair. The day before the Test, Warne could barely grip the ball at net practice, yet he finished with six wickets for the match. Taylor said of his team: ``We didn`t quite have the pace of the West Indies and at times we sometimes lacked their flair, but we had a really good, professional cricket team. They really pulled out all the stops. ``Steve Waugh`s batting... I can`t say enough about his batting on this trip. People have said he has a problem with fast bowlers, that he has a problem with the short ball. I think he has got rid of every knocker now. He averaged over 100 against them on their turf. Fantastic. Glenn McGrath and Paul Reiffel - those guys kept coming forward when Craig McDermott and Damien Fleming were gone. Back in Aus- tralia a lot of people would have thought that any chance of our winning the series was gone. The guys didn`t think that. They were obviously sad Craig went home. He is part of this winning series. But the guys used it as an opportunity to show how good they were.`` Taylor believed an Australian win ``inevitable``, convinced the West Indies would not reach 350. Their highest innings of the series was 265, indicative of an extraordinary batting malaise within their ranks despite the presence of Brian Lara, the world-record holder who appeared defensive and almost nervous be- fore his dismissal for a duck on Monday evening. Taylor`s fear was that the West Indies might struggle through the fourth day, then be saved by rain on the fifth. But Brendon Julian`s lovely 50 metre throw from backward square leg to break Carl Hooper`s wicket, turning blind and forgetting that Julian was a left-hander, ended any thought of the West Indies surviving the day. ``That run out told me we were going to win today,`` Taylor said. ``It was the sort of dismissal which turns a game and says you`re going to win it.`` Comparing the performances of the Australians at home in 1992-93 when the West Indies fought back to win 2-1, Taylor said: ``We weren`t strong enough to hang on. This time we were strong. We lost in Trinidad, but we wanted it that badly. They came up against a very good cricket team.`` The West Indies now fly to England where Taylor expects them to be fierce rivals in the six-Test series, but ``they have proved beatable if you play the right sort of cricket. They know now how to lose, which is something they have not done for 15 years.`` Thanks :: Phil Wilkins, Sydney Morning Herald. Contributed by David.Mar (mar@physics.usyd.edu.au) ====> Post match Richardson blamed as the power shifts from West Indies - Peter Deeley IT WAS a day and a night for sorrow and celebration in the Jamaican capital as players and public alike came to terms with the realisation that the balance of world cricket power has shifted away from the Caribbean. Men like Curtly Ambrose and Keith Arthurton, who have never known the meaning of a Test series defeat, were openly in tears after Australia`s innings and 53 run victory gave them the rubber 2-1. There was dissention in the West Indies` camp, where coach Andy Roberts rounded angrily on senior players for "not giving their all" and throughout the region there were calls for Richie Richardson to be stripped of the captaincy. Richardson himself, in bitter mood, rubbished his opponents by describing them as "the weakest Australian team I have ever played against." For the Australians and their hairy, bare-chested version of the Barmy Army, however, there was only the delirium of success; the players celebrated noisily in the top floor Talk of the Town suite at their hotel - an appropriate venue for a side now the talk of the sports world. When captain Mark Taylor woke up yesterday morning his room was overflowing with an avalanche of messages, from Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating to schoolchildren who had sent their congratulations on their classroom computers. Another ticker-tape welcome is planned for Taylor and his side and predictions are that it will be even bigger than the one in Sydney in 1989, greeting Alan Border and his successful Ashes- winning team. Border, along with Dean Jones - members of Australia`s last side here - watched the victory at Sabina Park with what both admitted was "a lump in the throat". This was the team Border had largely moulded and Taylor has refined into the unofficial world cham- pions. Border said: "I am still very close to this side and it would have been wonderful to be out there sharing this moment with them; but watching on this day was almost as satisfying. You can`t say this is not a formidable West Indies` side just because they haven`t four fast bowlers; they still have two in Curtly Am- brose and Courtney Walsh who are as good as any going around and any other Test side would be happy with them." The local press summed up the Caribbean gloom in headlines such as `Weeping Windies` and An editorial in The Gleaner newspaper said: "To many, defeat was like a disaster because they believed West Indies were invinci- ble. "Far from being the end of an era, however, this defeat may be a blessing in disguise. Apart from tightening up in the area of discipline, the Board of Control needs to put in place the kind of infrastructure which will maintain the quality of play and the players - many of them - need to be motivated once again and to be deeply committed." In the heads-must-roll atmosphere Richardson is the prime target In the pervading heads-must-roll atmosphere, Richardson is the prime target: radio talk-back programmes are devoted to what cri- tics see as his "lack of positive leadership". One caller suggested "Richie should sleep with his head under the pillow tonight". The West Indies` captain himself blamed the side`s lack of fight: "We played badly throughout the series; we never batted for more than a day and we didn`t do ourselves justice." Then he said, provocatively: "This was the weakest Australian side I have ever played against. If we had lived up to our poten- tial, we would have beaten them convincingly." He rejected the idea that defeat could turn out to be a blessing: "I don`t like to lose - defeat hurts, real, real badly. We have just allowed ourselves to become complacent." Roberts, who will be team manager in England when West Indies ar- rive next week, said of his bowlers: "They won`t listen to me. They are getting older and, on good batting tracks, they are get- ting slower." He also accused some of his batsmen of "failing to apply them- selves" and bemoaned the absence of Desmond Haynes, who was not considered for the series because he arrived home late from South Africa for the domestic season and who is suing the West Indies board for failing to select him. "It would have been nice to have Desmond around. I was very disappointed when he did not go to India because he could have brought on the young openers. As it was, we couldn`t do anything but continue with them." For Taylor it was `the greatest moment in my career` For Taylor it was understandably "the greatest moment in my career", but he still had time for words of encouragement to Michael Atherton and his side in the coming Test series in Eng- land: "Defeat for West Indies will be a plus for England, because you now know they are not unbeatable. "But you can bet Richardson and his side will be extremely deter- mined to prove that they are not yet over the hill. "This team lacks the big names West Indies once had. Their tac- tics against us - the short-pitched stuff - didn`t work and that was the crucial factor. We knew what was coming and we were prepared to handle it and we did. "England`s best way of beating West Indies will be to bat first. Atherton and I had a beer after the Ashes` series in England. We agreed that if you get runs on the board and give them something to chase in the last innings, their batsmen will feel as much pressure as anyone. They are not used to coping with that pres- sure, like we are, because they have rarely been put under the cosh." Dean Jones echoed that view and added: "You need a real quick bowler, a left-armer, a steady medium-paced seamer and two middle-order batsmen who can make the ball wobble a bit; then you can beat them. That is what we had and it worked." Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk) Contributed by The Management (help@*ogi.edu) ====> Post match, more Let the Tributes Flow for Heroes - by Robert Macklin Only the weather can now prevent Australia from formally claiming the world championship of cricket tonight, by wresting the Frank Worrell trophy from the clasp of the West Indies. And even if some freak typhoon from the Caribbean rains on our parade for the next 48 hours, the moral victory is surely Aus- tralias. There is, I suppose, a chance in theory that we could be beaten. The remaining seven West Indies batsmen could score the 203 to cancel our first innings lead then put on a quick-fire 100 and bowl us all out on the final day. But history says that will not happen; we are back at the top of the mountain and it is up to the contenders to try to knock us off. While we are relishing that collective glow of achievement in the belly after all the horrors of the early 80s and the slow strug- gle out of the stygian depths and into the sunlight, tribute should be paid to three men without whom it would not have oc- curred. First is Allan Border. The stocky left-hander was pushed into the breach when Kim Hughes spat the dummy and did he suffer on- field humiliations during those early years. Not the least were successive defeats at the hands of the enemy as the Ashes were captured in 1985. There were times when you could have cried for him, when not even his gritty lone hand could save a match or a series slipping away. But then, slowly, the team settled down and the rebuilding gathered pace when the second of our trilogy of heroes came into his own. Bob Simpson was of the old school. When the Packer circus left town with our best and brightest Simmo heard the call and at 41 returned to the Test arena to give the team a measure of competi- tive respectability. But more importantly, he saddled up later as coach and introduced the kind of fitness and practice regime that underpinned the growing success of the team. Fielding was one of the keys. A great slipper himself, Simpson knew the value of that adage about catches winning matches. He knew that a four saved was a four your batsmen did not have to score. He knew too that running between wickets to gain an extra 20 or 30 runs an innings could mean the difference between win- ning and losing, particularly in the one-day game. And he knew that once you started winning it could be habit form- ing. The best kind of habit there is. Between them, AB and Simmo brought the team to a plateau from which they could make the final assault. On the way they passed the less-disciplined Pakistan and India and young bolters like South Africa. They left the Poms so far in their wake you couldnt hear the whimpering. Border retired, somewhat reluctantly, and a blood clot forced Simpson off the park; but the two of them were in the Trinidad crowd anyway, not missing a ball. But there is still the assault on the summit and for that you needed a special breed. Any one of five could have made that dash for the top - Craig McDermott, scattering the opposition as he went; Shane Warne likewise; Taylor and Slater driving relentlessly forward. As it turned out, it was the fifth horseman of the apocalypse, the one named Waugh, who provided that final superhuman spurt to the summit. Steve Waugh, whom many wrote off as lacking either the technique or the courage to stand up to the West Indies quicks who delight- ed in lifting the new ball into his face and ribs as he back- pedalled, ducking and weaving like Johnny Famechon on the ropes. Steve Waugh whom every West Indian spectator loved to razz after the television replay showed his catch of their fabled Lara had spilled and grassed unbeknown to the catcher. Steve Waugh whose twin had tended to put him in the shade. Never again. In the fourth Test at Kingston, Jamaica, Steve Waugh matched it with the best the West Indies could throw at him. He matched it with his brother as they each scored their eighth Test centuries in exactly 231 minutes. Then when Mark left he went on ... and on .... his blade lashing like an ice-pick into the peak until he was last man out with his score on 200. The team joined him with the summit in reach. And tonight, with a little luck and a lot of heart they should all make it to the dizzy heights. When they do, they will know that to get there they have stood on the shoulders of giants. Source :: Canberra Times, Wednesday 3 May 1995 Contributed by David.Mar (mar@physics.usyd.edu.au)