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World Cup: Richardson leads recovery to keep West Indies in hunt

For the West Indies, the recent memory of defeat by Kenya must be impossible to erase. They went some way to alleviating the pain of it yesterday by beating Australia - whose record hitherto was clean except for the forfeited Colombo match - by four wickets, with seven balls to spare.

The West Indian victory was particularly pleasurable to their beleaguered captain, Richie Richardson, who made the most significant contribution to its achievement. Coming in at 26 for two, he was unbeaten with a chanceless 93 when West Indies passed the Australian score of 229 for six.

A source of further encouragement before a probable quarterfinal meeting in Faisalabad with all-conquering South Africa was an end to Brian Lara's run of poor scores.

Although his timing of the ball was not as faultless and enthralling as when he is at his best - due no doubt to the nature of the pitch - he scored 60 and partnered Richardson in a crucial stand of 87 for the third wicket.

An injury to Ottis Gibson proved a considerable advantage to the West Indies. Rather than pick the profligate Cameron Cuffy, they filled the vacancy with an extra batsman in Jimmy Adams. He helped stem a collapse that was developing when victory was in sight.

Moreover, the pitch, except in the morning, was no friend of the pace bowlers. It was no ally of the batsmen either for the ball came grudgingly on to the bat and the bounce became perilously low as the day progressed.

There was, however, help by way of lateral movement early on and Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh, bowling a very good length, harnessed it to keep Australia on such a tight leash that despite the loss of only one wicket, they did not reach 100 until the 22nd over.

Momentum was gained during a highly exciting partnership of 110 in 19 overs between Ricky Ponting, who made a magnificent 102 off 111 balls, and Steve Waugh, who sparkled while scoring 57 off 64.

``Winning is a habit you cannot afford to break''

Waugh made ample amends for his twin, Mark, failing to perform to earlier standards. After two centuries and an unbeaten 74 in the three previous games, he was out for only 30. But for his disciplined batting, however, Ambrose and Walsh could have inflicted some heavy damage with the new ball.

Australia's delay in gaining impetus may have had some bearing on the result, although their captain, Mark Taylor, said: ``With the pitch playing as it was, I thought our 229 was more than enough. But we did not bowl well and gave away some runs in the field. You might suspect that we were relaxed because the result did not matter to our final placing. But that is not so. Winning is a habit you cannot afford to break.''

However, it did look as if the Australians are going to miss Craig McDermott when they come up against sterner opposition. Their main threat to the West Indian batsmen came from the spinners. Shane Warne was wicketless but difficult to score off; Mark Waugh, bowling off-breaks, took three wickets and was dangerous because of the pitch's low bounce.

Stuart Law, the Australia all-rounder, will be Essex's overseas player next season, provided he is not chosen for the tour to Sri Lanka in early August.

Law, 27, a right-handed batsman and medium pace bowler, captained Queensland to their first Sheffield Shield last year, and will replace Australia colleague Mark Waugh in the Essex line-up.

Man of the match: RB Richardson