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Windies caught out

THE OLD adage that catches win matches haunted butter-fingered West Indies yesterday.

Four clearly identifiable chances and another near-miss all but assured Australia of their first lead in the Cable & Wireless One-Day International series.

In track and field terms, we would say the West Indies dropped the baton at the last hand-over and Australia won by a comfortable distance in the end, their victory by four wickets with nine balls to spare giving them a 3-2 series advantage ahead of today's final match.

There was little to separate the teams in batting and bowling on a perfect Kensington Oval strip, but the most important discipline in the shortened version of the game was the decisive factor in Australia reaching a target of 250.

Among the many similarities during the match were the swashbuckling efforts by the two wicket-keepers, Ridley Jacobs and Adam Gilchrist, who kicked-started their re-spective team's innings, and the mid-innings control by a spinner, Shane Warne for Australia and Nehemiah Perry for the West Indies.

But while Australia floored just one chance, the West Indies were let down by a proliferation, none more significant and straight-forward than Stuart Williams' foul-up of a skier offered by the dangerous Michael Bevan at a critical stage.

Williams never ap-proached the ball with any certainty. He stumbled, moved forward, then back and, as quickly as the ball hit his hands, it landed on the turf, to the total disgust of the sixth successive capacity crowd of the series.

At the time, Australia needed a further 24 runs from 21 balls and the blunder appeared to have reduced the fighting spirit the West Indies showed in the middle of the innings.

Hendy Bryan then sprayed two balls down the leg-side that yielded nine runs, five from a wide one that eluded Jacobs and four from one which Shane Lee tucked past the short fine-leg. In effect, the match was as good as won in the 48th over.

Williams, his reputation as a batsman diminishing throughout the series, also failed in a diving attempt in a period in which luck ran with Ricky Ponting who made a vital 43.

Twice in the space of a couple of balls when he was in the 20s, he escaped from sharp chances off Reon King, the first eluding the tumbling Keith Arthurton, and the second, according to countless television replays, landing just short of a diving Sherwin Campbell.

Campbell was also on the wrong end of one that barely grazed his finger-tips from a pull shot by Brendon Julian, who was sent at No. 3 after a whirlwind start by Gilchrist and Mark Waugh.

In was also coincidental that both teams passed 50 in the seventh over and reached their 100 within the first 15 overs. Both also arrived at the 200 at almost the identical stages, but the missed chances proved the major difference in the end.

Gilchrist strikes the ball harder and cleaner than any other Australian and his 68 from 56 balls with 11 fours and two sixes was an ideal foundation for Australia.

Like the West Indies innings, the visitors' slowed after the dismissal of their wicket-keeper.

Perry, brought on late in the innings, delivered ten accurate overs of steady off-spin in which he was hit for only 29 runs and claimed captain Steve Waugh, who appeared unlucky to be given caught off the pad.

Then, Reon King, after an expensive opening spell, was just as accurate as Perry and revived the West Indies with the wickets of Lehmann and Brendon Julian, both falling to catches to captain Jimmy Adams at either mid-off or mid-on.

The run-out of Ponting with a direct throw from Mervyn Dillon left Australia 206 for six in the 43rd over and the match in the balance. Williams' miss and the intelligent batting from Bevan and Shane Lee, however, formalised the result.

When the capacity crowd had started its Mexican Wave within the first hour and the boundary placards were flying all over the place, a West Indies total of around 300 seemed a foregone conclusion.

Jacobs, once more used as a pinch-hitting opener, ruthlessly launched a calculated assault in which he showed a clear bias for the on-side.

His 68 from only 56 balls was by far his highest score in 22 One-Day Internationals and included some meaty on-drives, a couple of cuts and two hoisted sixes over mid-wicket.

Anything slightly off-line, and some of those on a good line as well, he was swinging to the mid-wicket fence for most of his 11 fours, which he struck in another enterprising first-wicket stand of 81 with the consistent Sherwin Campbell. Campbell, less swashbuckling, but similarly effective, made 24 off 27 balls before he was the first of three victims to the impressive Shane Warne. Extracting sharp turn and displaying subtle variation, he immediately stopped the West Indies' rapid advance with the wickets of Campbell and Jacobs and his persistent problems to Jimmy Adams and Shivnarine Chanderpaul. Campbell trying to cut, edged a catch to the 'keeper, and Jacobs, trying for his third six over mid-wicket, holed out to the fielder on the boundary. Warne was almost unplayable, as he has been for most of the series, and his 10 overs cost just 28. His last victim was Stuart Williams, who might not have known that the leg-spinner was in his final over when he charged down the pitch, launched into a massive drive and was stumped. By then, the brakes had been applied to a Porsche that became converted into a donkey cart, and the West Indies' progress throughout the middle overs was down to a crawl against Warne's high-class leg-breaks and Mark Waugh's tidy and controlled off-spin. While the 50 was raised in seven overs and the 100 in 13.5 overs, it took Jimmy Adams, Carl Hooper, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Stuart Williams more than 15 overs to compile the third 50 and 11.3 overs for the fourth. If that was not bad enough, the last 10 overs, which are considered the ``happy hour'' could realise only 49 runs although six wickets were intact. Adams was neither as fluent nor forceful as he had been for most of the series and his 46 required 70 balls, while Chanderpaul's 44 took him 74 balls. When the West Indies were looking to them to move into a higher gear, both stalled, Adams falling to an intended dab to third man which he edged to the 'keeper and Chanderpaul pulling a catch to mid-wicket.