AFTER a day of controversy, acrimony, high tension and two exceptional hundreds, the West Indies are this morning within reach of a victory fit to rank with any they have ever attained in their 75 years of Test cricket.
They set out with four wickets intact and 47 more runs to reach a winning total of 418 never before achieved by any team to win a Test.
If they manage it, they would defeat an Australian team deservedly and officially rated as the finest of its timethat has previously overpowered them in all three matches of an embarrassingly one- sided series and in all the previous 10.
The West Indies have got there in spite of several diversions along the way and principally through two innings of exhilarating aggression and three critical partnerships.
Ramnaresh Sarwan, whose 105 from 139 balls with 17 fours, was his second Test hundred shared successive stands of 91 with captain Brian Lara, who made 60, and 123 with Shivnarine Chanderpaul who passed his eighth hundred three overs to the end and resumes unbeaten 103, from 144 balls with a hooked six off Jason Gillespie and 17 fours to his credit.
As the contest became increasingly tense, it also became more bitter.
Twice as he approached his landmark, Sarwan was engaged in heated conversation with Glenn McGrath in the middle in which Justin Langer and captain Steve Waugh alson became involved.
It appeared to have something to do with Sarwan’s right of passage when running. Whatever it was, it created an ugly scene that was only accentuated when McGrath proceeded to his position on the boundary to cheers from the touring Australian fans and jeers from the West Indians in the open section on the Independence Avenue side.
The confrontations prompted the separate intervention of umpires David Shepherd and Srinivasa Venkataraghavan and eventually cooled.
It might still have affected Sarwan for composure and common sense were absent in his dismissal for the seventh time in Tests to the hook shot.
Taking no account of the hardness of the second new ball, he offered the stroke to the pacy Brett Lee and lobbed a catch back to the bowler.
As Sarwan trudged back to the pavilion to contemplate his recklessness, the West Indies were still 130 adrift as Antiguan Ridley Jacobs took his place in the middle.
Lee dug in his first ball and Jacobs, of whom there is no one tougher in the team, grit his teeth and took it on his forearm. The high rebound was gathered by wicket-keeper Adam Gilchrist and Jacobs was aghast when Shepherd’s finger shot up in answer to raucous Australian appeals.
It was as staggering a decision as any in a series filled with umpiring errors. As Jacobs headed off, bottles and other debris were tossed onto the ground from the popular open stand side and a chant went up, “We want Ridley”.
The commotion soon ceased as police appeared and Banks faced up to the first of his 76 balls after a few minutes.
At the time, the wickets of Sarwan and Jacobs off successive balls appeared a critical double but Chanderpaul was in ripping form and, as he has shown in his brief time in the team, young Banks was unruffled even by the most daunting position.
After indifferent dismissals in Barbados and in the first innings here, Chanderpaul reverted to the bristling shot-maker of the first Test where his 69-ball 100 was the third fastest on record.
Disregarding a finger injury that kept him off the field throughout Australia’s second innings, he was ever on the prowl for a scoring opportunity, once more making the Australian bowling look common place.
He and the unflustered Banks, who batted through the last hour and 35 minutes with all the aplomb of a seasoned veteran, ended the day with their association worth 83.
Vasbert Drakes, a capable No.9, and the less reliable Merv Dillon and Jermaine Lawson remain in case they are required but the outcome is realistically in Chanderpaul’s hands.
The effort was all the more worthy because of a wobbly start that might have undermined a team 3-0 down in the series with the ignominy of their first whitewash in a home series hanging over their heads and a couple of distractions on the way.
Inside the first half-hour, their two overnight openers, left-handers Chris Gayle and Devon Smith, were out and the vulnerable Daren Ganga followed an hour later with the total 74 for three.
Then, at lunch, they learned that Jermaine Lawson, who has emerged as their vital strike bowler, had been reported to the International Cricket Council (ICC) for a suspect action.
Gayle missed his first attempted pull off Lee so he tried again, only to get the shot near the bottom of the bat to present a low catch to midon. His fellow left-hander, Smith, snicked Jason Gillespie to the keeper and the vulnerable Ganga was lbw to Glenn McGrath’s yorker.
The crisis required consolidation against the unrelenting accuracy of the Australian fast bowlers.
Sarwan was quickly into action with three boundaries in 18 by lunch but the morning yielded only 61 from 26.5 overs. The tempo picked up after lunch as Lara, as he usually does, went into overdrive against Stuart MacGill’s leg-spin.
To the delight of a crowd that steadily grew to around 5,000 during the afternoon, he hoisted MacGill for three sixes, two in succession high into the top tier of the double-decker stand at long-on.
As always, he was Australia’s most dangerous threat but MacGill had joyous revenge.
Lara, who had been in for two and a half hours, waltzed down the pitch, once more aimed for the spectators over long-on, missed and heard the rattle behind him as ball took the top of the middle stump.
Chanderpaul emerged onto the field for the first time since the opening day, a sore finger keeping him in the dressing room.
Soon, MacGill spun one painfully onto the glove so that his injury needed on field attenion. At 10, he gave a sharp, low unaccepted chance to Martin Love at first slip off the first ball of a spell from MdGrath.
But he didn’t take long to once more assess the pitch and the bowling. By tea, he was 34, Sarwan 67 and their stand already worth 63.
His banter between with the Australians followed as Sarwan approached his first hundred in the Caribbean. He arrived there with an on-driven two off Lee and exulted in the breakthrough of his first Test hundred in the Caribbean. But the adrenelaine was now pumping and seemingly clouded his memory and judgement for he failed to acknowledge either the change to the second new ball or his preevious record with the hook and went for it in the following over.
The ball was only into its third over and, harder, it bounced higher. Sarwan got the shot high on the ball and Lee trotted around to collect the lobbed catch.
Jacobs, and the bottles, followed immediately but, with Steve Waugh persisting with MacGill’s expensive leg-spin, runs flowed.
Banks escaped a regulation first slip catch to Martin Love when 2, an error that has already cost Australia, and proceeded to play confidently while Chanderpaul headed for his hundred.
Amidst wild, flag-saving celebrations, he got there as the light faded. Now glory beckons him and those who can help the West Indies to a famous triumph.