CricInfo Home
News Home

NEWS FOCUS
Rsa in Pak
NZ in India
Zim in Aus

Domestic
Other Series

Australia nose ahead

LIKE TWO thoroughbreds on the Garrison Savannah, the West Indies and Australia were neck-and-neck in the home stretch of yesterday's Sixth Cable and Wireless One-day International.

But when at Kensington Oval, Michael Bevan hit Mervyn Dillon away to the wide long-on boundary, it was Steve Waugh's Aussie team who had put their noses in front in this intruging series.

The final margin of victory was four wickets. Stand-in Windies captain Jimmy Adams would ruefully admit later that the difference between having a position on the rails ahead of today's series decider and having to come from behind was really 20-30 runs.

Those were the additional runs the home side failed to make when, after winning the toss for the first time in the series and galloping away to 107 for 2 by the 17th over, they stumbled to 249 for 8 at the end of the 50th.

But the problem for WI was also, once again, Shane Warne.

In the eyes of Man-of-the-Match adjudicator Darnley Boxhill, his super spell of 10-1-28-3 was not good enough to win the prize.

Wicketkeeper/batsman Adam Gilchrist (64), who along with his left-handed West Indian colleague Ridley Jacobs (68) put sold-out Kensington in stroke-making heaven, got the nod.

But Adams and company had their plans messed up by ``Warney''.

They would have had visions of 250-plus when, first to his and the crowd's shouted delight, he won the toss to break a sequence of nine correct calls in the Tests and One-days for Waugh.

And then on a Rolls Royce of a batting pitch, Jacobs and Campbell belting eight fours and a six, put on the first 50 in 7 overs, the target would have climbed to 300.

But just as Warne and Mark Waugh made them stumble in mid-stride with their spin, so too did at least three missed catches-two off Ricky Ponting who made a crucial 43 and one, inexplicably, off Michael Bevan with 25 runs still needed.

As well as they have competed in this series, as bright as they have often looked, the regional team still lacks that polished finish.

And yesterday, fielding arguably their weakest combination in the rubber, the rough spots were exposed again.

The batting, lacking the solid middle-order play of injured Phil Simmons, suffered once Jacobs and Campbell left, the inexperienced and out-of-form members down the order failing to get into stride. And when the Aussies began their chase, the home side missed the economy at least at one end, of either rested Courtney Walsh or ill Curtly Ambrose.

Gilchrist, feasting on the cuttable, driveable fare he got at least once per over, made few mistakes in a riveting display of calculated strokeplay.

He and Mark Waugh (25) posted 70 for the first wicket before Waugh gave his hand away, chipping a drive to Adams at mid-off.

He accounted for three of the boundaries hit off King in his first three overs that cost 28 runs.

The young pacer would redeem himself later with more controlled bowling and the wickets of pinch-hitter Brendon Julian (31), caught at mid-off top-edging a pull, and Darren Lehmann. Lehmann's dismissal left the score on 163 for 4 in the 29th over.

The tempo of the match had changed once again.

Off-spinner Nehemiah Perry got none of the early wickets, Hendy Bryan, adding to the wickets of Dillon and King, the scalp of Gilchrist, caught behind by Jacobs cutting.

But Perry was the near equal of Warne, his admirable control allowing just 29 runs in his ten overs.And he got the Windies back in the game.

But further headway was halted by the diving efforts of Stuart Williams and Sherwin Campbell, both at midwicket, that failed to get rid of Ponting.

Campbell also missed a very difficult chance given by Julian before he had scored.

But there was not much to be said when, with the game in the balance, Williams at midwicket spun and spun and then finally grassed a chance that had stayed ages in the air. Skipper Adams, approaching from mid-off, was better placed to take it.That was one stumble too many.

Watching from behind the stumps, Jacobs must have thought that his morning's work was going to waste.For 65 spectacular minutes yesterday morning, the normally peccable pastor took the rod of discipline to the Australian bowlers.

But they took their early blows and then got their own back through Warne.

The transformed leg-spinner, his confidence now flowing after he had looked to have lost it in the Test series, again proved his class as the strike bowler from the time Waugh introduced him in the ninth over, to the time he had Williams stumped in his last.

Warne's final figures speak of both the economy and potency that he produced with bowling that was both penetrating and varied.

His intervention was a life-saver for his captain as was the fine support provided by Waugh, coming on in the 16th over after Shane Lee had been clouted for 27 runs in three overs. The last over included three successive boundaries driven through midwicket, cover and over mid-off by the rampant Jacobs.

It was the second time in the innings that the man from Swetes had done the ``trick'' against Lee. The first sequence had taken the promoted-to-opener Jacobs to his 50 in just 36 balls.

His vigorous 58-ball display brought him 11 fours and two effortless sixes, and his highest One-day score.

The knock was rich entertainment for the huge crowd and further proof of the value of this all-purpose team man.

But when he pulled a quicker Warne ball to Julian with the total on 107 in the 17th over, the boundaries dried up and the fun stopped.

By then, Campbell had also gone for 23, having added 81 in just 11 overs with Jacobs.

He was Warne's first wicket, cutting a ball too close to him into wicketkeeper Gilchrist's gloves in the bowler's second over.

And now faced with fresh batsmen, the Aussie bowlers, led by Warne,worked on them. Adams, restrained by his uncertainty against Warne and the shift in fortunes, soldiered to 46 before he was caught behind off Tom Moody. Shivnarine Chanderpaul, still not himself, struggled to 44 in 74 deliveries while adding 61 with Adams. Then he mis-timed a pull off the first ball of Mark Waugh's final over to mid-on.

No one else could take up the slack, including mystifying, ``slow coach'' Carl Hooper, run out for 8. Hooper would raise the ire of some in the Mitchy Hewitt stand with some sloppy fielding. It was another poor day for him, made no better when Bevan struck the winning boundary.

But ``Hoops'' will be expected to help the Windies earn a series deadheat as the teams come down the home stretch today.