( L - R ) Dwayne Bravo and Sturat MacGill - FILE PHOTOS
hobart, australia, cmc
AMID DISTURBING RUMOURS of internal strife and the stark reality of a humiliating defeat in the series opener in Brisbane, the West Indies face seemingly insurmountable odds against a supremely confident Australian team in the second Test beginning Thursday (Wednesday night, Caribbean time).
Whatever the size of the gap between speculation and reality, Shivnarine Chanderpaul's suggestion on Sunday that the home team may be more vulnerable than in the recent past resonates with the confident authority of a man whistling in a graveyard.
HIGHLY UNLIKELY UPSET
Even if everyone in the Caribbean camp were pulling together in the same direction, upsetting the hosts in a Test match would be highly unlikely. On the evidence of the past two weeks of rapidly deteriorating performances and dwindling confidence, it looks almost impossible.
In what is the first Test to be played at Bellerive Oval since New Zealand drew with the home team four years ago, cricket fans in Tasmania are hoping for a contest worthy of the occasion.
Almost every hotel room in Hobart, from five-star to budget accommodation, has been filled by fans from around the island and mainland Australia for a match that will be of special significance for the home captain. Ricky Ponting may now live in Sydney, but as a born and bred Tasmanian, who still plays for the last state here to be given first-class status, leading out his country on his home ground for the first time in a Test match is a moment he will surely savour.
Coming off hundreds in both innings of the first Test and with a record of five centuries in his last four Tests against the West Indies, Ponting is primed to mark the occasion with another superlative innings.
ABYSMAL LARA
Yet as much as they are willing the local hero to produce a vintage effort in leading his team to victory, Tasmanians remain hopeful that the one West Indian instantly recognisable to them will emerge from his slump Down Under and somehow inspire the underdogs to make a fight of the second Test. Brian Lara's form since his arrival in Australia at the end of September for the anti-climactic "Super Series" has been nothing short of abysmal. Scores of 30 and 14 at the Gabba extended that poor run to 91 runs from eight innings, and having missed the three-day match and Twenty20 swiping session against Victoria last weekend to rest his injured finger, the star batsman may be short on form and confidence, but will be boosted by pleasant memories of recent matches here. In the lead-up to the VB tri-nation limited-over series at the start of the year, Lara, who was then captain, stroked a sublime century against Australia "A" at Bellerive. Four years earlier, before the major redevelopment of the ground, he had hammered a double-century in a four-day match against the same team and followed it up a week later with a commanding 182 in the third Test in Adelaide.
As much as he, fellow Trinidadians Dwayne Bravo and Denesh Ramdin, and indeed all of the team, will be distracted by Trinidad and Tobago's return leg World Cup football play-off against Bahrain in the early hours of Thursday morning, Australian time, there is no question where Lara's focus must be if speculation that his best days of batsmanship are behind him are put to rest once more.
Bravo's omission from the team for the first Test surprised all who have seen his development over the past 18 months, and with the calculated gamble of playing a four-prong pace attack of suspect fitness and quality backfiring, he is expected to be back in the final 11 at the expense of Jermaine Lawson.
DOUBLE LEG-SPIN ATTACK
A dry, straw-coloured pitch has increased expectations that Stuart MacGill will join Shane Warne in a double leg-spin attack. Despite taking nine wickets in Australia's whipping of the Rest of the World in the one-off "Super Test" last month in Sydney, MacGill was omitted from the first Test against the West Indies with the selectors preferring his New South Wales teammate, Nathan Bracken. With Brad Hodge certain to make his Test debut after pulverising the West Indies bowlers to the tune of 177 last Friday at Junction Oval, and Andrew Symonds tipped to get the chance to shake off the tag of one-day specialist, Bracken and MacGill seem to be vying for the one spot.
TEAMS: AUSTRALIA (probable) - Ricky Ponting (captain), Matthew Hayden, Mike Hussey, Brad Hodge, Michael Clarke, Andrew Symonds, Adam Gilchrist, Shane Warne, Brett Lee, Glenn McGrath, Stuart MacGill.
WEST INDIES (probable) - Shivnarine Chanderpaul (captain), Chris Gayle, Devon Smith, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Brian Lara, Marlon Samuels, Dwayne Bravo, Denesh Ramdin, Daren Powell, Fidel Edwards, Corey Collymore.
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