DERBY, England, CMC - In a display of scandalous recklessness unworthy of a Sunday morning pick-up side, West Indies were bundled out for 223 off just 40.1 overs after choosing to bat on the opening day of a three-day cricket match against Derbyshire, yesterday.
The hosts, who have failed to make any impact in their domestic schedule this season, resume on the second day at 102 for two after negotiating 49 overs in which their top four further shamed the visitors in batting with the elements of good sense that had conspicuously escaped their opponents.
The shocking performance, coming in the wake of heavy defeats in the first two Tests against England, was all the more distressing in that it made a mockery of manager Tony Howard’s statement released before play that the team was “looking forward to the last tour match and the final two Test matches, fully focused on achieving better results.”
The theme of the statement seemed to be a vote of confidence on behalf of the players in Brian Lara, but the captain - who sat out this match - would have taken little comfort if his team-mates’ effort on the day was intended to be a show of support.
Dwayne Smith survived three chances in crashing his way to a run-a-ball 55 that would have done little to enhance his claims for a Test recall next week at Old Trafford before joining the list of soft dismissals.
His innings, comprising seven fours and one six, actually paled in comparison with Chris Gayle’s for its shot-a-ball carnival-style mentality.
Opening the batting with Sylvester Joseph, the senior partner crashed nine fours in speeding to 42 off 24 balls before a yorker from opening bowler Paul Havell uprooted his off-stump with the total at 52 in just the seventh over.
The batsmen who followed, most of whom desperately needed time in the middle to make an impression on the selectors - assuming that happened to be on their minds - were apparently preoccupied with matching the breathtaking pace set by Gayle.
With the exception of acting captain Ramnaresh Sarwan, who demoted himself to number seven in the order to give others an opportunity, none could claim to be undone by a particularly outstanding bit of bowling or sensational work in the field.
Chief beneficiary was off-spinner Nathan Dumelow, who finished with career-best first-class figures of five for 51. The 23-year-old, who had previously picked up just one wicket in the season at a cost of 152 runs off 47 overs, could hardly believe his good fortune on a balmy day at the County Ground.
A typical journeyman county cricketer who still assists in his family’s dairy farm, Dumelow simply put the ball in the right area and let West Indian irresponsibility do the rest, rekindling memories here of his Derbyshire debut five years ago when he took four for 81 against Pakistan.
His first victim came half-an-hour before lunch when Devon Smith offered a catch to extra-cover to end his own stroke-filled innings at 31.
Ridley Jacobs, playing exclusively as a batsman, added 50 for the fifth wicket with Dwayne Smith, getting to 33 when an attempted cut found the edge for Andrew Gait to snare the sharp chance at first slip.
Sarwan looked less than pleased to be adjudged lbw to the spinner, apparently hinting that he had gotten an inside-edge, but Smith and Omari Banks earned no sympathy as they also perished to Dumelow, giving the spinner his third five-wicket innings haul in first-class cricket.
If their entire approach to batting was depressing to West Indian eyes, the order in which they appeared was also mystifying. After Joseph followed Gayle back to the pavilion for 23, a victim also of medium-pacer Havell, Dwayne Bravo emerged at number four in the order.
If the intention was to give him time in the middle ahead of the Third Test, he chose to spurn the offer with a flamboyant, bended-knee, extra-cover drive off the other opening bowler, Nick Walker, that only succeeded in presenting a straightforward catch to wicketkeeper and captain Luke Sutton.
Spectators trickling into the ground after the first two hours would have been forgiven for thinking the match had been changed from a three-day fixture to a 20-20 strokefest with the score at 155 for four at lunch.
Not surprisingly, the pace changed completely when Derbyshire started their reply in mid-afternoon, opener Stephen Stubbings batting through 49 overs for an unbeaten 37.
He resumes on the second morning with Steve Selwood, not out on five, after Gait went lbw to Dwayne Smith for 13 and Hassan Adnan, the county’s top run-getter this season, fell to Gayle for 31 edging an attempted late cut to wicketkeeper Carlton Baugh.
The only fast bowler selected in the final 11, Fidel Edwards again struggled for rhythm and control as Smith and Joseph joined him in using the new ball.
Left-arm wrist-spinner Dave Mohammed, having just joined the team on Monday, was not called into action until the 38th over. But he, Banks and Gayle can expect much more work today after bad light ended play 10 minutes before the scheduled close.
In every respect, it was a gloomy day for the West Indies.
WEST INDIES 1st innings
C. Gayle b Havell 42
S. Joseph c wkpr Sutton b Havell 23
D.S. Smith c Gunter b Dumelow 31
D. Bravo c wkpr Sutton b Walker 3
D.R. Smith c Gunter b Dumelow 55
R. Jacobs c Gait b Dumelow 33
R. Sarwan lbw b Dumelow 6
O. Banks c wkpr Sutton b Dumelow 6
C. Baugh lbw b Gunter 5
D. Mohammed c wkpr Sutton b Gunter 4
F. Edwards not out 5
Extras: (lb-7, w-1, nb-2) 10
Total: (all out) 223
Fall of wickets: 1-52, 2-85, 3-103, 4-109, 5-159, 6-182, 7-209, 8-210, 9-214.