Sport

Crunch time for Windies

Australia's Brett Lee (right) celebrates dismissing West Indies batsman Ramnaresh Sarwan (left) for four runs during the one-day match in Melbourne last Friday. Australia made 301 runs in their 50 overs, with Martyn top-scoring with 95 not out. Australia and the West Indies are playing in a triangular one-day series which also includes Pakistan.

BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA, CMC

THE WEST INDIES' second encounter with Australia on Friday (tonight Caribbean time) is critical to the Caribbean side's survival in the VB Triangular Series.

With a greater appreciation now of the enormity of the task ahead of them, new head coach Bennett King and the rest of his technical staff face as much of a challenge in lifting the morale of the West Indian players as with attending to any technical details before this third fixture in front of a sold-out crowd of 34,000.

Should the West Indies slide to a third defeat in a row under the lights of The Gabba against Australia, and Pakistan defeat the hosts on Sunday in Sydney, it is difficult to see how the Caribbean squad can avoid an early flight home.

A frustrated Brian Lara yesterday rapped his batsmen for not picking up the tempo early against Pakistan in yesterday's six-wicket loss, which left the Caribbean team anchored to the bottom of the standings after two matches of the tri-nation VB Series.

"A total of 273, with five wickets still in hand, was not the right sort of total on a track like that," was the West Indies captain's frank assessment of his team's batting performance.

"I think we were at least 30 to 40 runs short of where we should have been. There was a period in the middle overs where there were, consistently, two to three dot balls every over against the bowling of (Shahid) Afridi and (Mohammad) Hafeez.

Cruelly exposed

"We talk about being a good chasing team, but the weakness we have is we don't understand what is a winning total," he added.

"The Pakistani batsmen showed what it was really like out there. Our part-time bowlers went for a lot today."

Yet another aspect of the glaring inadequacies in West Indies cricket was cruelly exposed yesterday as Pakistan made relatively light work of a target of 274 runs at The Gabba, cruising to a six-wicket victory with three overs to spare.

Knocks of 82 from Chris Gayle and 76 by Ramnaresh Sarwan in a total of 273 for five was a considerable improvement from being dismissed for 185 in their opening match against Australia in Melbourne last Friday was not enough for the Pakistanis.

However, the West Indies' performance was put in perspective by Kamran Akmal when Pakistan set about their target.

The little wicketkeeper-batsman registered his maiden One-Day International century, a run-a-ball 124 that proved the foundation of his team's pursuit of what could have been a challenging target, particularly as pacer Mervyn Dillon struck two early blows to give the West Indies the early advantage.

But with Shoaib Malik (60) joining Kamran in a 123-run third-wicket partnership and captain Inzamam-ul-Haq ensuring there was to be no catastrophic collapse with an unbeaten 62, the Pakistanis effectively toyed with Lara's array of ordinary back-up bowlers when the midweek crowd in excess of 10,000 was expecting a tense finish.

With all three teams now having played two matches each, Australia sit at the top of the table on 11 points, followed by Pakistan on six and the West Indies on one, the point earned by virtue of at least preventing the opposition from romping to an even swifter victory.

Hamstring tear

Hampered by the loss of fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar with a slight hamstring tear in just his third over, Inzamam was indebted to Afridi's ten-over spell of leg-spin which cost just 39 runs while the part-time off-spin of Hafeez cost 54 runs with the bonus of the wicket of Wavell Hinds (29) to end an opening partnership of 86 with Gayle.

In contrast, the trio of Marlon Samuels, Sarwan and Hinds were plundered for a combined 128 runs in just 17 wicketless overs.

Like Dillon, Ian Bradshaw picked up two wickets but the pair, along with Pedro Collins, could not maintain a consistently disciplined line and length to build pressure on the batsmen.

After Hinds' dismissal in the 19th over, Gayle and Sarwan added 63 runs in 15 overs - underlining Lara's point about a critical failure to accelerate - before the big opening batsman skied a catch to Malik at cover 18 runs short of a tenth ODI century.

Recognising the need to increase the scoring rate, Lara's urgency almost cost him his wicket via the run out route before he was undone by a short ball from medium-pacer Rana Naveed-ul-Hassan, lobbing a straightforward catch to backward point to depart for 39 off 30 deliveries.

In his first match since arriving in Australia just over a week earlier, Ricardo Powell was caught behind to the first legal delivery he faced, and although the ever-reliable Shivnarine Chanderpaul (25 not out) stayed with Sarwan to add another 62 runs before Sarwan fell to the last ball of the innings, the feeling even then in the West Indian camp was that they had sold themselves short.

Aggressive strokeplay

That discomfort was briefly eased when Dillon, making amends for poor bowling in Melbourne where the West Indies lost badly last Friday, yorked Salman Butt and then had Hafeez caught by Gayle at first slip to reduce Pakistan to 36 for two in the eighth over.

But Malik's aggressive strokeplay and Kamran's fluent supporting role put Pakistan firmly in control.

An edge to wicketkeeper Courtney Browne off Bradshaw ended Malik's entertaining knock, but any lingering West Indian hopes of a Pakistani capitulation faded with Inzamam's nonchalant accumulation of runs while at the other end, Kamran reached a deserved hundred off 107 balls with nine fours.

Lara's catch at cover to end the diminutive right-hander's match-winning innings failed to spark any celebrations among the West Indian players, for in strode vice-captain Yousuff Youhanna to formalise a victory with his captain that looked on the cards halfway through their innings.

"Nowadays no total is safe in one-day games, especially on such a good batting pitch," was Inzamam's sympathetic assessment of Lara's plight.

He also revealed that Akhtar will stay with the squad in the hope that he could regain fitness and still be a factor if Pakistan advance to the best-of-three finals.

Probable teams for Australia versus West Indies match at The Gabba: