Australia in West Indies, 1998/99, 6th One-day International Rick Eyre for CricInfo - 24 April 1999 CricInfo report

Australia Win against The Toss

Something unusual happened at the start of the sixth one-day international between the West Indies and Australia at Kensington Oval, Bridgetown, Barbados, yesterday. An Australian captain lost the toss. Despite this setback for Steve Waugh, Australia won the match by six wickets to take a 32 lead with one match to play.

With Brian Lara declared out for the rest of the series, captain Jimmy Adams capitalised on his successful call of the toss by batting first. Openers Sherwin Campbell and Ridley Jacobs stormed into attack, helped by Waugh's strange decision to give Tom Moody the new ball in partnership with Damien Fleming. When the double bowling change came after eight overs, West Indies had 59 runs on the board.

With the two Shanes into the attack, Lee was smashed for three consecutive fours by Jacobs in his first over. The West Indian wicketkeeper brought up his half-century with the third of these fours, from 36 deliveries. After having Jacobs dropped twice (once by Ponting, once by Mark Waugh), Warne dismissed Campbell in the second over of his spell, edging a leg-break into Adam Gilchrist's gloves. Campbell made 24 from 27 deliveries in the elevenover opening stand of 81.

The fifteenth over of the innings was a Shane Warne maiden, one hundred runs on the board as the field restrictions were lifted. Jacobs resumed his assault on Lee with three more boundaries in the space of one over, but on 68 became Warne's second victim, pulling straight to Brendon Julian at deep square leg. Jacobs faced 56 deliveries and hit eleven fours and two sixes.

Hooper was run out after scoring 8, beaten by a Steve Waugh direct hit. Adams (48) and Chanderpaul (44) played a solid partnership but the run-rate was slipping from 6 to 5 an over. The Windies were contained to just 49 runs in their last ten overs, finishing the innings on 249 for 8 - a disappointment after their explosive start, a 300-plus total looking a probability for a while. Shane Warne, with 3/28 from his ten overs, was the standout in an Australian bowling attack still minus Glenn McGrath.

Mark Waugh and Adam Gilchrist got Australia's chase off to a strong start against a bowling lineup missing both Walsh and Ambrose, being especially tough on Reon King and Hendy Bryan. After their fifteen overs Australia were 108 for the loss of Waugh (25). Gilchrist scored 64 from 55 balls before falling to Bryan in his second spell.

Brendon Julian, batting at first drop, contributed 31 at almost a run a ball, but with Australia seemingly cruising, Ponting struggled for his 43 runs. Cheap dismissals of Lehmann (2) and Steve Waugh (5) saw Australia back onto comparatively equal footing with WI. However, the NSW duo of Michael Bevan and Shane Lee combined to see Australia through to victory with nine balls to spare and four wickets in hand. Bevan (35*) took his career average past 62, while Lee's 19 from 18 balls helped atone for his 30-27-0 earlier in the day.

Adam Gilchrist, with 64 runs, two catches and a stumping, was named man of the match in a game which had none of the crowd troubles seen in Georgetown, Guyana last Wednesday.