– The West Indies came out on the wrong end of several umpiring decisions yesterday and face an uphill task to save the second test
Garth Wattley St John’s
Catches, they say, determine matches. But so too do inspired pieces of fast bowling. And sometimes, even bad umpiring.
Today’s final day of this Second Digicel Test match will decide if there will indeed be a winner of this game. But Brett Lee certainly opened up a way for world champions Australia yesterday.
The Aussie paceman produced the first five-wicket haul at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium: five for 59. He did it in a destructive six-over spell in the final hour of play before lunch which capsized the game.
West Indies, coasting along at 314 for four with Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Dwayne Bravo in charge, tumbled to 352 all out, losing six wickets for 38 runs. That gave the Australians a first innings lead of 127 which they improved to 371 by the end of the day’s play.
Fidel Edwards’s dismissal of Lee, incorrectly adjudged by umpire Mark Benson to be caught by wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin off the glove, brought the action to a halt with Australia on 244 for six in their second innings.
The decision was the latest in a series by the officials which marred the day and influenced the course of this match. In all there were about four questionable calls by Benson and Russell Tiffin.
The West Indies were the bigger losers. The mix of bad judgments and Lee really put them in strife.
On an unresponsive pitch, Lee relied on accuracy and reverse swing at high speed to engineer the dramatic collapse. But where he covered himself in glory, ICC elite umpire Tiffin did not. Bravo, Denesh Ramdin and Darren Sammy were given out by the Zimbabwean official in the space of four balls to Lee, all of them to debatable decisions.
Bravo (45, two fours, three sixes) had disciplined himself for two-and-a-half hours, beginning on the third afternoon and had added 132 for the fifth wicket with Chanderpaul when in Lee’s second over of the day, he attempted to glance an off-line delivery down the leg-side. Wicketkeeper Brad Haddin claimed the catch and Tiffin upheld the appeal. Bravo walked away, throwing his head backwards. The ball, as TV replays clearly showed, had brushed the batsman’s hip, nothing else.
Ramdin did not get the benefit of the doubt either from the umpire when he was struck outside the off-stump by a delivery which moved in late. Sammy then managed to keep his bat out of the way of the potential hat-trick ball as it flew by his off-stump.
The next over of Andrew Symonds off-spin offered brief respite.
But first ball of Lee’s next over, Tiffin also sent Sammy packing, beaten by a ball which also struck him outside off-stump as he played forward.
In four balls, West Indies had gone from the secure position of 314 for four to crisis at 318 for seven. The deficit was still 161.
Boot repairs took Lee out of the attack for an over, in which time, Jerome Taylor made hay. He hit replacement Michael Clarke (who Lee had originally replaced) straight overhead for six and took consecutive boundaries off the left-arm spinner.
In all, the capable lower order batsman made 20 off 26 balls.
Chanderpaul, on 96 when the collapse began, did finally manage to get the remaining four runs to complete his 19th Test ton and second in as many matches in this series.
The hundred, which took Chanders level with Clive Lloyd and behind only Brian Lara (34), Sir Garfield Sobers (26), Sir Viv Richards (24) on the all-time West Indies list of century-makers, was almost an aside in the morning’s drama.
But it further embellished a purple patch of scoring for the run machine which has seen him notch five three-figure scores in his last 10 Tests stretching back to the tour of England last year. Not for the first time, he would walk off the lone survivour of a wrecked Windies innings, on 107 (336 minutes, 12 fours)
Taylor eventually became wicket number four for Lee, bowled as he drove at a full delivery which hit middle and off-stumps: 341 for eight. Daren Powell, plumb lbw this time, was number five.
It was the ninth time Australia’s pace ace had taken a handful in Tests. But this five-for had come in just 18 balls. His figures for the morning read: 6-1-9-5.
Lee was denied a sixth victim by new ball partner Mitchell Johnson who returned to have Fidel Edwards caught by the keeper.
Eight minutes were still left to lunch in this extended session of two-and-a-half hours.
The home team would not have eaten heartily. Some tough breaks had put them in a backs-to-the-wall jam; one which required a positive approach to address.
A repeat of the spirited fightback the bowlers launched in the Aussies¢ second innings in the First Test was required. But the Windies’ body language suggested the morning’s proceedings were still weighing on them.
Phil Jaques, partnered this time by Mike Hussey, filling in for the injured Simon Katich, added 74 for the first wicket before the ever-trying Bravo induced an edge from Hussey (40, three fours) and was well caught by Ramdin standing up to the crease.
Captain Ricky Ponting now entered and before he had scored, survived an appeal for lbw, as he pushed forward to Sammy. He was struck just outside off-stump, not dissimilar to Ramdin and Sammy himself in the morning. Umpire Tiffin saw things differently this time. Not out.
Ponting went on to add 89 for the second wicket with Jaques, the partnership extending past tea. Jaques played some handsome strokes to reach his first half-century of the series. But with a century in sight on 76, Jerome Taylor removed him via another Ramdin catch as he edged an attempted cut shot. Ponting himself became Taylor’s second wicket in as many overs when Englishman Benson ruled him lbw for 38.
The wickets encouraged the home side. And they were boosted further when Chanderpaul’s direct hit from mid-off ran out Clarke (10) and Edwards in a firery spell removed Brad Haddin lbw (seven) and then Lee.
Whenever they get to bat today, survival will likely be the Windies’ lone recourse.
Steady nerves will be a must. It will help too if they catch a break with the calls.
