TWICE in the past, Australia had amassed totals in excess of 600 at Kensington Oval.
But neither their 668 in 1955 nor their 650 for six declared ten years later could have been as demeaning to West Indies cricket as the 605 for nine declared they reached on the second day of the third Test yesterday.
Team selection that left the bowling in the hands of two adolescent bowlers on debut, another in his sixth Test and a stalwart in his fifth at the age of 33 was one established factor.
The decision to allow Australia’s commanding batsmen first use of a pitch as lifeless as those on which even great bowlers like Sonny Ramadhin and Alf Valentine struggled in 1955 and Wes Hall, Charlie Griffith, Lance Gibbs and Garry Sobers in 1965 was another.
But, as Steve Waugh, Australia’s relentless captain, added a few more milestones to the several he has already established in his lengthy career, the most obvious and embarrassing element was fielding that would have disgraced any reputable school team and for which inexperience can be no excuse.
It is one department in which youth should be an advantage. Instead, it seemed a hindrance.
Waugh was missed at 11, 57 and 85 on his way to 113, a record 30th Test hundred, and he and the partners who helped him along the way collected countless free runs as balls went under bodies, through legs and fumbling fingers.
Over and over, singles were comfortably gathered to fielders placed in positions specifically to prevent them. When clear-cut run out chances were offered, not one was taken.
There was one especially forgettable spell after tea that made all self-respecting West Indians cringe.
Tino Best, all hyperactive enthusiasm, came charging in like an enraged bull only to let balls go under and through him, the second all the way to the boundary.
Devon Smith, blinded by the sun on the midwicket boundary, turned his back on a feasible catch off the long-suffering 20-year-old debutant off-spinner Omari Banks rather than at least trying to shield his eyes.
In between, there was fumbling in the covers and wild throws that even the hundreds of Australians in a crowd of around 8,000 would not have found comical. This, after all, was a Test match, not an over-40s knockabout.
No more single-minded cricketer has worn Australia’s baggy green cap than Waugh, except it was the legendary Don Bradman.
These were opportunities he was not going to spurn as he surpassed Bradman’s 29 hundreds as the most by an Australian, also replacing India’s Sunil Gavaskar as Test cricket’s second highest run-scorer when he was 58.
That the incomparable Bradman required only 52 Tests to gather his number, and this was his 159th, would have been of no concern to Waugh.
Now only the 11,174 runs in 156 Tests by his fellow Australian Allan Border (at the ground yesterday as a selector) and the 34 hundreds by Gavaskar and Sachin Tendulkar 31 are ahead of him. Even if he is in his 38th year, it is not a far-fetched assumption that they will be passed before he finally, and reluctantly, takes his leave.
In the 23 overs available following Waugh’s declaration, openers Chris Gayle, with nine fours in 47, and Devon Smith, six fours in 34, went some way to reviving flagging West Indian spirits by going to stumps at 89.
On such a benign surface, runs should be as plentiful as when the West Indies responded with 510 in 1955, thanks of the famous 374 runs stand between Denis Atkinson and Clairemonte dePeiza, and 573 in 1965, with Seymour Nurse scoring 201.
But, even if they do, they won’t paper over the disturbing slap-dashery in the field.
Waugh’s was not an innings that will rate high on the list in his video library. He was seldom dominant in five and a quarter hours of hard grind, counting only eight fours in spite of the threadbare attack and the generous fielding.
His first two chances were both to Ramnaresh Sarwan, raising the vice-captain’s blemishes to three following his first ball reprieve of Justin Langer at the start of the match.
Waugh’s first let-off was low to Sarwan’s left at short mid-wicket off the persevering Vasbert Drakes.
His second was from his characteristic slog-sweep off Banks that sailed towards the midwicket boundary in front of the Kensington Stand. Sarwan, slow off the mark, needed a despairing lunge to try to reach the ball and didn’t.
His third was down the leg-side to Carlton Baugh off Jermaine Lawson but the little 20-year-old keeper went for the catch with his left glove, rather than both, and let the ball slip out.
But nothing could deflect Waugh from his goal. As the young West Indies team wilted under the weight of runs, he shared successive partnerships of 113 with left-handed wicket-keeper Adam Gilchrist, who made 65, and 124 with Andy Bichel whose run-a-ball 71 was his highest Test score.
It was a tough day for the West Indies who where alternately led by Brian Lara and, when a chill kept him off the field, by Sarwan.
They could not make use of an early breakthrough when Drakes persuaded a fortunate lbw decision out of umpire David Shepherd to remove left-hander Darren Lehmann for 96, after adding six to his overnight 89.
Sarwan’s first miss three overs later would have been another immediate boost. But once Waugh became entrenched and his partners took advantage of anything loose, the runs flowed at an increasingly rapid rate.
Gilchrist clubbed Best for 4, 6, 6 over the leg-side off successive balls and deposited Banks into the top tier of the Sobers Pavilion to overtake Waugh, 43 to 42, at lunch.
He was 10 ahead of his captain when he swung Banks to Smith under the Greenidge and Haynes Stand at midwicket.
Gilchrist was followed by Bichel who continued to establish the credentials as an all-rounder that were obvious in the World Cup. He clouted Lawson into the Sobers Pavilion for one of his two sixes and was in no bother when he slapped Banks’ full toss to midwicket.
By now, Australia were 568 for six and the innings ended in a crecendo of a couple of sixes each by Brett Lee and Jason Gillespie and a clatter of stumps as Lawson bowled Waugh, Lee and Stuart MacGill (first ball), all missing slogs.
The tall, slim Banks, the first Test player from Anguilla, was the main, but not only, sufferer. His three wickets cost him 204 runs from 40 overs as the Australians thumped him for four sixes and 18 fours.
Only the Jamaican spinner, Tommy Scott, with five for 266 from 80.2 overs in England’s 849 at Sabina in 1930, has ever conceded more for the West Indies.
It was also a chastening initiation for Best who went wicketless for 20 overs that cost 99.