Tym Glaser, Associate Editor - Sport
Stuart Clark (front) and Ricky Ponting (rear) celebrate the wicket of Shivnarine Chanderpaul in the first Test between Australia and West Indies at Sabina Park, yesterday. - junior dowie
AFTER VALIANTLY battling world champions Australia toe to toe over the first four days of the first Digicel Test at Sabina Park, the West Indies were yesterday knocked out by the pace and accuracy of the visitors' premier seamers.
Chasing what seemed to be a gettable final-day target of 241 with nine wickets in hand, the speed of Brett Lee and the precision of tall, fast-medium bowler Stuart Clark routed the hosts' top order as the Aussies bowled out the Windies for 191 and marched to an impressive 95-run victory, 35 minutes before tea.
Sad capitulation
It was a sad capitulation by the West Indies and an anti-climactic end to what had been, up until yesterday, a compelling match.
Despite the loss, West Indies coach John Dyson said his team had plenty of positives to take into the second Test which starts in Antigua on Friday. He was also full of praise for fellow New South Welshman Clark.
"I think they (Australia) just bowled too well," he said after the match. "Stewie Clark just bowls to a dead-set formula and, as (Australian skipper) Ricky Ponting said, if you keep putting the ball in the right area people are going to either nick them or miss them and they get out," Dyson, a former Australian opening batsman, said.
"I was hoping for a much stronger start to the day but they bowled very well. If you look at the whole Test match, there were only a couple of sessions that cost us dearly," he said. "But that's the thing about five-day cricket, you can't afford to have bad sessions.
"I said to the team after the match that they did a lot of things right and each game we play we continue to do more good things. This Test showed they (Australia) are human, not super human and I am sure we will make more improvements in Antigua."
Key to winning
Ponting said a good start yesterday was the key to winning the match and that he had planned to "stretch out" his top bowlers, Clark and Lee.
"We spoke at length this morning about how we wanted to attack the day and what we needed to do and how to execute it," he said. "I think the game was really in the balance we had to not give away any boundaries early on, not give their batsmen any momentum. Brett and Stuart started very well this morning and most of the things we tried came off for us.
"I'm really happy tonight for that win; to work as hard as we did today for that result was very satisfying."
Chief tormentor
Clark, the chief tormentor of the West Indian top order in the first innings, continued his mastery over the line-up by adding the scalps of Devon Smith (19), skipper Ramnaresh Sarwan (12) and Dwayne Bravo (0) to that of his overnight victim, Brenton Parchment, in a marathon 10-over spell at the start of the first session.
Lee, who also bowled 10 overs on the trot, picked up Runako Morton (nine) and the prize wicket of first innings centurion Shivnarine Chanderpaul for a scratchy 11.
Clark got the Aussies off to the perfect start in his second over of the day when he induced a leading edge from Sarwan and Andrew Symonds scooped up a fine catch at cover at the second attempt.
Left-hander Smith, for some reason best known to himself, decided to pad up to a straight ball from Clark and was palpably leg before, soon after.
Lee then joined the party by trapping Morton leg before after being hooked and on-driven for boundaries. A well-set Australian trap brought about the demise of Bravo as he drove Clark straight to short mid-on and then Lee, who struck Chanderpaul on the back of the head in the first innings, claimed the gritty left-hander with a fine catch off his own bowling - an over after the Guyanese had been put down by Andrew Katich at first slip.
Having resumed the day at a hopeful 46 for one, the West Indies had been reduced to a hopeless 82 for six in exactly an hour and a half and all that was left was for the Aussies to mop up the tail.
Stout resistance
That task was delayed by some stout resistance from 'keeper Denesh Ramdin, who was spilled by his opposite number - Brad Haddin, when on one, and all-rounder Darren Sammy. They put on 67 for the seventh wicket before Ramdin (36) fell to one of the rarest of dismissals - a direct-hit run out by Stuart MacGill.
Sammy, on 35, was trapped leg before to give Clark his fifth wicket of the innings.
Daren Powell, with a lusty 27, and Amit Jaggernauth (0) provided legspinner MacGill with the last two wickets of the match.
The clear pick of the Australian bowlers was Clark with 5-32 off 20 overs and match figures of 8-91 off 39. Lee bowled better than his final figures of 2-81 off 22 suggested.
The Man of the Match award went to Clark, although a fair argument could be made for Australian middle-order batsman Andrew Symonds, who made 70 not out in the first innings and an invaluable 79 in the team's meagre second knock of 167.
Do
you have a problem? Is something bothering
you? Write to