With first innings hero Shivnarine Chanderpaul still at the crease at the start of what turned out to be the final day, the West Indies might have hoped to get another 150 or runs so to put some pressure on Australia. The hosts added only 17 runs to their overnight score of 381-5, which was tremendously disappointing. If you were a West Indian supporter, and continued to show another failing that the West Indies cricket team has had for many years; the tail-enders are exactly that, tail-enders, going to the crease to “make up numbers”, in the batting line-up, that is, not in the runs.
Maybe Vasbert Drakes looks, but has not produced, as a batsman, and sometimes Mervyn Dillon hits the ball cleanly, but this is not good enough. The time has come when the West Indies cricket team must have their final four “batsmen”, for want of a better word, not to count Ridley Jacobs, make at least 50 runs between them. This has carried on for much too long, regardless of who is selected.
The West Indians do not have to look too far for inspiration. When Australia batted a first time, Andy Bickel made 39, Brett Lee clobbered a quick 20, Jason Gillespie 07, leaving Stuart Mac Gill on 4 not out. That was a useful addition of 70 runs to the already imposing total.
But believe it or not, I am not even really concerned too much about the lack of runs from the West Indies tail. As interim coach Gus Logie suggests, the West Indian batting line-up, proper batsmen, that is, could be improved further with perhaps the inclusion of Ramnaresh Sarwan and Chris Gayle for the next Test later this week.
My problem is with the West Indian bowlers, as bowlers!! The truth is, unless the Australians become very complacent, extremely careless or simply decide to lose a Test match, I cannot see the present West Indian bowling attack getting them out twice in any Test match, in a week of cricket. As I have said so many times, and is so widely known, it does not matter if your batsmen make a zillion runs, the bowlers must take 20 of the opposition’s wickets if a team is to win a game.
Having looked at West Indies cricket for the last nearly twelve years or so as a pseudo-sports journalist, I can safely say that I doubt very much, right now, that there is any bowler in the Caribbean who can actually bowl six consecutive legal deliveries, under normal conditions, on one side of the wicket, preferably the off-side. Forget “length” for the moment. None of the Test fast bowlers showed enough control of “line” in this just completed Test match. If they cannot even control the “line”, how are they going to control that much more difficult phenomenon, “length?” How, then, would they get 20 wickets to win a Test in this series? That is nearly impossible.
Again, Gillespie can be something of a model. Both he and captain Steve Waugh suggested that my piece in Sunday’s newspaper about the Australians looking bedraggled gave them inspiration to come out afresh yesterday morning and pummel the West Indian tail-enders. I doubt that that was true, since Test cricket is inspiration enough, but it also reminded me of another thought.
In the past, if I wrote anything that a West Indian player, the team’s connections or his supporters did not like, the normal reaction from them was heated confrontation and even abuse from the player/and or the supporters, while the Australians claim inspiration. What is wrong with this picture!!
Just look at the way the seemingly rejuvenated and energized Jason Gillespie came out yesterday morning. None of the LBW decisions he got in his favor could have been questioned, so straight and disciplined was his bowling. The big South Australian fast bowler promptly had four of the five remaining West Indian wickets, including his 150th Test wicket. The final figures told the story: 20.2 overs - 5 maidens - 39 runs - 5 wickets. The West Indies lead was a far from adequate 146.
Australia got to the necessary 147 to win the game and go 1-0 up in the 4-Test series with Justin Langer, after his excellent 1st innings century, continuing apace, getting 78 not out, including ten 4’s, while Ricky Ponting, another 1st innings centurian, was 42 not out.
Now, the West Indies must retool, especially their bowling, quickly, for the 2nd later this week in Trinidad & Tobago. Australia might already be fighting complacency. Merve Dillon seems to be on his last legs, as does Pedro Collins. These guys must be bowling for run-outs, as there is neither pace nor movement from them and their deliveries are almost always harmless. The West Indies need some good new bowlers like the Iraqis need good new water-treatment plants and cisterns. Unfortunately, unlike the Iraqi position, where some relief organization would eventually give them water, the West Indies bowling attack has very little in the reserve cupboard around the region, so the West Indian supporter, after all of the noisy rhetoric, will thirst heavily for Australian wickets this season.