– Australia, led by a superb 158 from skipper Ricky Ponting took control of the first Digicel test at Sabina Park yesterday cruising to 301-4 with the fiery Fidel Edwards picking up two wickets
Garth Wattley
in Kingston
Ricky Ponting’s excellence at Sabina Park yesterday has given his Australian side immediate control of the first Test of this Digicel series.
The Australian leader imposed himself on a depleted West Indies attack to craft 158 (17 fours, one six) in eight minutes short of six hours.
Made in century partnerships with Michael Hussey (56, six fours) and Brad Hodge (53 not out, six fours, one six), Ponting led Australia to 301 for four at the end of the day.
Ponting’s 35th hundred in 118 Tests underlined once more his status among the game’s all-time elite. Only Indian maeatsro Sachin Tendulkar with 39, has scored more.
Yesterday’s effort was also the Aussie’s seventh ton against the Caribbean side. Steve Waugh is the only other Australian with as many against the Windies.
The skipper made his runs virtually without a blemish and rescued his side from early trouble.
Winning the toss, Ponting would have fancied his batsmen’s chances against any bowling combination the West Indies put out yesterday on a Sabina pitch that was good for strokeplay.
But if anything, the Australians’ job was made easier by the absence through injury of the West Indies’ one genuine bowler of class, Jerome Taylor.
A lower back strain, previously undisclosed publicly, kept him out. According to the Windies’ media officer Phillip Spooner, both Taylor and all rounder Ryan Hinds, with a `niggle’ in his left hamstring, were available to play, but were advised to sit out this match.
It is questionable whether Hinds would have made the final eleven in any case. But in the end, off-spinner Amit Jaggernauth was given his debut and along with medium pace allrounder Darren Sammy, took his place in the side.
Jaggernauth, however, had to wait until the second session to get his first bowl.
It was not however, because the Aussies were under pressure from pace.
Ponting and Michael Hussey more than made up for the cheap dismissals of openers Simon Katich and Phil Jaques by Fidel Edwards.
Standing in for injured Matthew Hayden, left-hander Katich did not make it past the fourth over.
Having collected a square-driven boundary the previous ball, he tried for a repeat off Edwards but instead found Sammy in the gully who grasped a good catch with both hands to his right. It was the first instance of some outstanding catching by the home team.
Eighteen for one became 37 for two four overs later when Jaques was lbw to an Edwards ball which straightened and beat the left-hander.
The new opening pairing had not come off. But it was the stay of the next two men that was going to be critical to both teams.
Ponting and Hussey kept each other’s company for three hours and seven minutes in putting on 137 for the third wicket.
Especially before lunch, it was not a run-a-minute affair.
Hussey, already with eight hundreds in the 22 Tests since his debut against the Windies in 2005, was never at his best.
Pedestrian was his scoring in the first sesssion. At lunch (87 for two), he had taken 65 balls to get 16. In contrast, Ponting, stroking the ball around Sabina with typical assurance and fluency, was 44 off 52 deliveries.
Edwards aside, none of Sarwan’s bowlers asked serious questions of the consolidating batsmen.
At the start of the second session, Edwards again did an admirable job for his skipper.
In a fine spell of five overs in which he conceded just 13 runs, he was pacy, aggressive and controlled, bowling a full length.
One short ball was too quick for Hussey who got struck on the grill of his helmet has he tried to pull. And Ponting shot an anxious glance at the pitch after he was squared up by an away swinger which pitched on a good lengthed and curled away from both the outside edge of Ponting’s bat and the off-stump.
But Fidel got no wickets. Moral victories were not good enough for Sarwan on this blazing hot afternoon in the city.
Eventually, with 33 overs bowled in the innings and the batsmen set, the WI skipper finally decided to give Jaggernauth a go.
Right from the start, the off-spinner extracted encouraging turn. And while only one run came in his first over, he struggled to hit a consistent length. In each of his next four overs, Jaggernauth conceded a boundary.
Eventually, in his ninth over, he got just the reward he was looking for, with the brilliant Bravo’s help.
Hussey, playing tentatively and away from his body, got an outside edge and Bravo, moving with anticipation to his left initially, changed direction in flash to snap up the catch with his right hand mere inches from the ground. It was a memorable way for a man to get his first test wicket.
So it was with extra joy then that Jaggernauth would have embraced his Trinidad and Tobago teammate.
But the Hussey dismissal was the only one for the home team in the session which concluded with Australia on 189 for three.
Ponting still looked unbeatable on 96, another hundred well in his sights.
After the break, he duly reached his initial target with a couple of runs tucked into the on-side off Jaggernauth.
The off-spinner bowled for 18 overs straight save for tea in his first spell, and could well have picked up new batsman Hodge as well. Hodge seemed to get a thin edged to a ball which spun across him but wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin failed to hold the leg-side chance. Hodge hadn’t yet reached double figures.
And it was not until he had added 119 for the for the fourth wicket with his captain that success came the Windies way once more.
And again it took a super catch to make the breakthrough.
Ponting’s day-long occupation of the crease was ended six overs before the end, by a diving one-handed effort by Brenton Parchment in the square-leg region as the batsman failed to properly control a pull shot off Bravo.
The all rounder, in his best spell of a ragged day for him, also took the second new ball. But he could not prise out nightwatchman Mitchell Johnson. And more importantly, Hodge.
