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Day 1: Walsh forces Australia on to back foot

Peter Roebuck in Kingston

An inspired opening burst from Courtney Walsh has given the West Indies some hope of renewing interest in a series swiftly slipping from their grasp.

Playing on his home patch, Walsh contributed an opening spell of 10 overs, during which he took three wickets, and it could have been more. Bowling with his customary mixture of control and hostility, he passed the bat regularly and thoroughly deserved both his wickets and the roars from an impressed crowd.

It took a partnership between the Waugh twins to prevent Walsh making further inroads. After resisting his thrust they set about the bowling, cutting and gliding and running singles at every opportunity. Steve Waugh was almost stumped on 13, otherwise the pair moved smoothly forwards.

Mark Waugh twice stepped down the pitch to hit sixes off Nehemiah Parry, a lanky off-spinner playing his first match. Parry was handicapped by unhelpful fields set by his captain. Brian Lara soon had only four men in the 'circle' and runs were collected easily. By tea this pair had put their team on top.

Walsh remains aformidable opponent. Two days ago, he had been given the keys to Kingston. Now he earnt the plaudits of Sabina Park as he put his opponents through the mangler.

Walsh seemed to take upon himself the task of restoring pride in West Indian cricket. A year ago, with Lara in trouble and boos expected, this lanky Jamaican walked on to the field with an arm around him.

He does not want his career to end with a whimper. He bowled with remarkable stamina and fortitude for the sun was blazing and it had been a rotten toss to lose, since the pitch is likely to crack up after a day or two.

Before long, the music was blaring, the players were jumping and supporters in the George Headley Stand were changing their placard from 404 to 405 to 406. Hereabouts, they believe Walsh deserves his chance to go all the way and pass the record of Test wickets.

Matthew Elliott was the first casualty on a bright morning. Finding Walsh operating from around the wicket, he pushed forwards and edged to slip, where Lara took the catch neatly. Elliott has been struggling to assert himself and is inclined to dip his head in hard times.

The very next ball thundered into Justin Langer's body, whereupon the bowler stood a yard from his opponent and the pair exchanged meaningful glares.

Langer could not withstand the assault. Walsh went back over the wicket, pitched the ball up and found an edge from a dismayed opponent. Langer is a rugged cricketer with some work still to do.

Naturally, the West Indians were delighted and the ground rumbled. Contrary to predictions, Sabina Park was neither empty nor hostile. Lara was not booed. It is as if everyone has said all they had to say and now want to move ahead. It does not seem a time for recrimination. Things cannot get much worse; besides, there isn't much fun to be found in kicking a man lying upon the ground.

Batting was not easy at the other end either, at least until Curtly Ambrose began to tire. In Trinidad, he had taken his time. Now he responded to the spirit with a lively spell. At heart, he is a calypso character posing as a rap man. Deep down, he does care and it is just that he chooses to be silent and, for some extraordinary reason, does not like reporters. None the less, his time is almost up because he cannot sustain his effort and isn't much use in the field.

Moreover, impressive youngsters like Reon King and Corey Collymore are pressing hard.

Ambrose also beat the bat repeatedly and suffered as edges disappeared through gaps, putting his hands on his knees in exasperation.

Meanwhile, Michael Slater had been batting skilfully. No longer is he the urchin picking some pocket and laughing as he scuttles away. Now he is a controlled and confident opening batsman with sharp footwork. The child can still be found within but it is controlled and directed.

Slater found time to hook defiantly once or twice. But Walsh took him in the end, slipping an in-swinger through his defences and raising his arms as the snick was held by Ridley Jacobs, the likeliest man to replace Lara as captain.

Shivnarine Chanderpaul is a shy lad from a remote fishing village, and the other candidates are not good enough. The World Cup may be the last hurrah for the current dispensation.

Slater's fall brought the Waughs together. Four years ago, they added 231 runs on this very ground in a partnership that settled the series and signalled the changing of the guard.

West Indian decline had begun long before and they had failed to notice it. They took an awful lot for granted. Only now, with Reg Scarlett as director of coaching, are efforts being made to build academies in each country while a national academy may open soon at Grenada University. Scarlett has found plenty of interest and lots of talented youngsters. More of them will be chosen within the next 12 months.

The greatest need is to restore the pride that has been mislaid, beaten back by parochialism as higher aspirations are temporarily forgotten.

Hard as they pressed, the West Indians could not part the Waughs before lunch. At last, Walsh was rested and his replacements could not quite maintain the rage as Lara prematurely spread his field. Lara seems a lonely, unhappy and poorly advised young man, whose captaincy hangs by a thread. By lunch, he had every reason to thank a predecessor whom he had tormented with his temperamental ways.

Lara has five days in which to prove himself as a man and as a leader. No one is worrying anymore about his reaction to losing office. Cricket lovers here are looking ahead, and they are tired of stars they regard as immature and selfish.

Day 2: Bold Lara hits form with solid century

By Peter Deeley in Kingston

BRIAN LARA chose a moment of deep personal and collective crisis here yesterday to rediscover his golden form of old with a century that will bring joy to the whole of the Caribbean.

He pulled his side back from the brink of another Australian disaster with his 11th Test hundred, his first since June 1997. Sharing in a century partnership with Jimmy Adams, West Indies, 216 for four in reply to Australia's 256, pulled themselves back into this second Test with a vengeance to stand at 227 for four at tea.

The moment of his hundred was pure theatre. Lara raced neck and neck with a throw from Justin Langer, which was a direct hit, for a cheeky single. It seemed he might have failed to make his ground and umpire Steve Bucknor called for the television replay.

That did not deter hundreds of spectators rushing the ground and the player was almost lost in the crush. He had to be rescued by burly security men and came out wincing from the handshakes and back-slapping and still not knowing whether he had got home.

Lara awaited the decision beyond the boundary edge, taking copious swigs of water, and when the green light came he ran rapturously back to the middle to be hugged by Adams.

But the television replay was again lacking in clarity. Lara had to be given the benefit of the doubt because there was only one camera and the crucial moment when batsman and ball homed in was obscured by the umpire's body.

For Lara himself the 281 minutes he spent at the crease before reaching three figures were probably the most tension-filled of his career. At the end of this Test, the West Indies selectors will decide whether to continue with Lara's captaincy or go for a new face who would in all probability also lead the World Cup side.

They have also chosen this time to reveal that specialist training programmes are to be introduced for captains in the region. Michael Findlay, chairman of the selection committee, said: ``There's a lot more involved in captaincy than merely knowing about cricket. One has to be trained in a number of ways.''

Including handling the media, one hopes. Lara took journalists to task for writing about his tardiness on turning up late for training on the eve of this game after being in a night-club until the early hours. ``I'm under terrible pressure,'' he complained.

Lara was in no mood to take chances when play began after the long shadows cast by the disasters of the first evening when West Indies collapsed to 37 for four.

Happily for him, this determination was matched by those around him. Nightwatchman Pedro Collins took two early boundaries off Jason Gillespie and in fact outscored his captain until he suffered a severe blow in the groin from the same bowler and had to limp off.

Adams might have been out immediately when he uppishly fended off a short ball from Gillespie, but there was no short leg. Adams, on his own club ground, has looked out of touch of late but he manfully supported Lara.

It has been seven Tests now since West Indies batted through a full day, and even not to have lost a wicket in a session was enough to put something close to a grin on the face of their manager, Clive Lloyd.

Lara scored only 12 runs in the first hour but when Glenn McGrath dropped one short, he was instantly in position to swivel and pull the ball through the empty legside field for four.

In an intense personal duel, Lara took the brunt of McGrath, who decided to bowl a fuller length, and at the other end was happy to pull Stuart MacGill's first ball, a full toss, deep to the midwicket boundary.

There was no let-up for Lara from McGrath after lunch and when he had reached 45, a flying edge was half-held by Mark Waugh at second slip.

But that was as close as Australia got to nailing their prize. Lara reached a careful half-century in 200 minutes with a tickle off his legs for two off Shane Warne and next ball stepped back to drive the leg-spinner for an on-side four.

One over later, Lara used his feet to Warne and smashed him for six in the identical spot. He was bubbling now, the crowd were roaring and the reggae band blasting out their thunderous rhythm with every stroke.

Day 3: Australians too late with their fightback

Peter Deeley in Kingston

Glenn McGrath's third five-wicket haul in as many innings gave Australia a glimmer of hope yesterday of saving the second Test after West Indies failed to capitalise on the triple century stand between Brian Lara and Jimmy Adams.

Both were dismissed inside the first hour after they had taken their record-breaking partnership for the fifth wicket to 322.

Then the second half of West Indies' batting showed familiar frailty, the last six wickets going down for 53 runs, but at tea Australia were still in trouble at 49 for two, 126 runs behind.

Lara lasted 10 balls, adding one run to his overnight 212, then edging one from McGrath - his third delivery of the day - which held its line. His innings lasted just under eight hours and he hit 130 in boundaries.

It was McGrath who deserved Adams's scalp, and he got his man when the left-hander, six short of his first Test hundred in three years, played an angled bat to a ball swinging away and was taken at third slip.

Shane Warne had been going through an unusually fallow period and had not taken a wicket in 58 overs since he dismissed Mark Butcher in Sydney, until Ridley Jacobs opened his shoulders and Gillespie took the catch sprawling low at mid-on.

If Warne had bowled badly on the second day, Stuart MacGill's form was truly dismal, long hops mixed with full tosses. On the basis that he could not get any worse, Steve Waugh asked him to replace McGrath and the spinner responded with three wickets in as many overs.

Pedro Collins was picked up at slip, then the left-handed Curtly Ambrose played round an off-break and Courtney Walsh was leg before first ball. MacGill will bowl much better and return far worse figures than his three for 84.

Australia, 175 behind on first innings, needed a solid start, but to Courtney Walsh's sixth ball of the innings Michael Slater tried rashly to cut and chopped the ball on to his stumps. It was wicket number 409 for the Jamaican.

Elliot should have been caught at second slip off Ambrose in the very next over - the four runs off his edge were his first in three innings.

But he was soon leg before to Nehemiah Perry offering no shot, and two balls later Lara at slip failed to hold a straightforward edge off Mark Waugh from the off-spinner before the Australian had scored.

Day 4: Lara brings West Indies out of deep depression

Peter Deeley in Kingston

The West Indies ended a period of national mourning in the Caribbean yesterday when they completed a convincing victory over Australia in one of the most astounding turnabouts in modern Test cricket.

Their win by 10 wickets was as unexpected as it was decisive and ended a run of six successive Test defeats. This time Australia - the uncrowned kings of the game - must retire to lick their wounds and try to regroup for the third match in Barbados next week.

For Brian Lara, the man of the match for his double century and now almost certain to be confirmed as captain for the rest of the series, the adulation of the Jamaican crowd was the sweetest possible music.

Only a week before he had been vilified on this island as the nightclubbing leader of a team of has-beens. They could not forget his part in leading the West Indies to a 5-0 drubbing in South Africa, topped off by the humiliating 312-run defeat in Trinidad.

Lara said the priority had been ``to put behind us that 51-run total'' the West Indies' lowest score, in the second innings in Port of Spain. In this second game Lara had around him six players whose experience of Test cricket amounted to only nine appearances.

``With so many young players I knew it was going to be difficult. Even in my own mind I was a bit sceptical. But we got the guys together, worked a lot on the mental approach, built up their confidence - and it paid off.''

Steve Waugh admitted that he found it difficult to explain Australia's defeat after the eclipse of the West Indies in the opening game. The Australia captain pledged: ``Now we've had a wake-up call I know we're going to bounce back. There's no way we're going to play as poorly in the third Test.''

He conceded that ``maybe we let our guard slip a bit'' when the West Indies were 37 for four at the end of the first day, but said pointedly: ``There was no sense of relaxing or taking it easy. And if there's anyone in the team who had that notion, he shouldn't be playing for Australia.''

This was Australia's biggest defeat since India beat them in Madras by an innings a year ago and for Waugh the only consolation was that it might sharpen attitudes.

For a man who was extolling the ease of Australia's win in the first game he was now prepared to say: ``In a way this defeat could be good for us. If we had won this game as easily then the rest of the series wouldn't have been tough. I love playing tough, tight Test cricket. Now the last two matches are going to be something special.''

Australia have a four-day game in Antigua against West Indies A before the Barbados Test and Waugh admitted that it would be a match of special significance for his batsman.

But the speed of Australia's collapse here has taken their selectors by surprise. Waugh said: ``We didn't expect this Test to finish so quickly and so we haven't had much of a chance to think about the next game.''

Waugh, who scored a century in the first innings, placed much of the blame on his batsmen - along with two dropped catches early on during the 322-run partnership between Lara and Jimmy Adams. ``We played some pretty ordinary shots in the second innings and didn't respect our wicket enough,'' he said. ``Too many times in the past our second innings has only been average.''

Lara, who has been on probation as captain after events in South Africa, had a pointed dig at his cricket board over their leaking of the criteria by which they are judging him. ``I hope it was confidential,'' he laughed, knowing that the details have been made public.

He emphasised that his own character has changed to meet the criteria. ``I've tried to improve personally, not only in cricket but outside in my own life. But there's always pressure when you're the centre of attraction as leader. Pick up a paper in two weeks' time and there will be something negative.

``I've got to learn to cope with it: it won't go away. I try to concentrate on team matters, not the high expectations of others.''

Asked about his reputation as a ``night owl'', Lara replied: ``Everybody has their weaknesses. But I don't allow myself to become demoralised. As you get older, you get wiser.''

For Lara the importance of the win was the reawakening of support in the Caribbean. ``We've been going through a disastrous time, and a lot of people, while not defecting, were becoming very disappointed with us. Everyone was hurting and now everyone is pulling together to see how we can get out of the rut.

``I'd love this to be a turning point but you have to be cautious with the Australians. They aren't going to lie down and let us walk all over them.''

The West Indies took 43 minutes to complete their win as Australia's last two wickets went down in 6.4 overs. Off-spinner Nehemiah Perry finished with five for 70 on his debut and Courtney Walsh collected his 411th Test wicket.