A picture, as the maxim goes, is worth a thousand words.
One image on the tv screen on Friday summed up the exasperation over events in Abu Dhabi even more expressively than all the choice expletives that repeatedly echoed across the Caribbean during the week as the West Indies confirmed their No.1 ranking in the “defeat from the jaws of victory” category in two ODIs against Pakistan.
It was of John Dyson, the head coach, ruefully shaking his head and visibly greying as Carlton Baugh trudged back to the pavilion in the second match.
The gesture reflected as much his realisation of the dearth of batting reserves and cricketing common sense at his disposal as his annoyance at the manner and timing of the little wicket-keeper’s dismissal.
Baugh was reinstated for the first time since 2006, ahead of incumbent Denesh Ramdin and the No.2 Patrick Brown. It was presumably by way of a dashing, unbeaten, run-a-ball 111 for Jamaica against the Australians at Trelawney last May, his eighth hundred in first-class cricket in which he averages 34, more than either of the other two.
While Ramdin’s keeping was impeccable in the subsequent Tests and ODIs against Australia, his batting had fallen off. It was said he needed a wake-up call.
Why Brown was also bypassed is more difficult to explain but, since Baugh’s keeping has never been flawless, he was chosen apparently to bolster the weakest West Indies middle order batting on record.
When he arrived under the lights in the middle of the Sheikh Zayed Stadium on Friday night, the match was finely balanced.
Sohail Tanvir, Pakistan’s left-arm swinger with the tangle foot action, had removed Chris Gayle with an in dipping yorker and Sewnarine Chattergoon, both without scoring to set up an immediate crisis.
As he, Umar Gul and Iftikar Anjum made the most of favourable conditions, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Shivnarine Chanderpaul were stretched to the limit to survive – and it was either survival or another embarrassing all-out total.
With the untested Xavier Marshall and Shaun Findlay next in the order, followed by Baugh and a tail starting with Jerome Taylor at No.8, they were effectively the last of the recognised batsmen.
Painstakingly, they steadied the innings, putting on 92 from 23.3 overs. When Sarwan misread Shahid Afridi’s googly to be lbw at a critical point, Marshall and the left-handed Findlay, neither fully familiar with the hazards of running with Chanderpaul, were stranded when sent back after setting off for singles that did not take their partner’s fancy.
By this time Chanderpaul, a well practiced hand in such challenging situations, was gradually increasing the initial, careful tempo. The function of who ever partnered him was clear. It was to supply him with the strike and keep their end going.
It was an imperative that did not appear to register with Baugh. His approach to the eight balls he received was to back away to leg and swing wildly. Somehow, he gathered three runs. Suddenly, Chanderpaul stroked boundaries in successive overs from Anjum and Gul that yielded 16 in all.
The worms on the screen were touching – 65 were needed off 55 balls. All Chanderpaul required was for Baugh to remain calm and unbeaten but the ‘keeper’s thoughts had been scrambled by the adrenalin rush that overcame him from the time he stepped onto the ground.
It was Gul who kept his cool, even at the end of an over already worth nine. His last ball yorker shattered the stumps as Baugh stepped back for an indescribable stroke.
Dyson, already drained by Thursday’s demoralising, last over defeat when his best bowler, Jerome Taylor, was smashed for 17 in the final over, knew, as everyone else did, that was that.
The ICC’s Cricketer of the Year, for all his resourcefulness, could not do it on his own. The tail offered as much support against the rampaging Pakistanis as could be expected which was never going to be enough.
As Darren Powell and Lionel Baker missed and Gul hit, Chanderpaul was left high and dry 107 (his first 50 off 94 balls, the next 57 at run-a-ball) with the target 25 away.
At the Queen’s Park Oval last March, he won a match against Sri Lanka with a four and a six off the last two balls. No chance this time.
Baugh has been in and out of the team, dating back to the 2003 Tests against Australia. This is likely to be the last time since Ramdin’s contrasting, composed response to similarly tight situations in the recent Stanford Super Series is certain to regain him his position.
But the worry is that Baugh is not alone among the present generation of West Indian players in panicking under pressure or not appreciating the state of the game. It is an area that needs to be high on the agenda of the long promised academies and high performance centres that, we are told, are soon to materialise.As devastating as it was, Kamran Akmal’s match-winning, last over assault on Taylor in the first match is not cause for as much concern. It happens and nerves are seldom the cause.
Even our finest bowlers have endured their final over floggings from uninhibited batsmen. Somehow, it is always a Pakistani administering the blows.
The most runs conceded by a West Indian in the last over of an ODI is 27 by Ian Bishop to Ramiz Raja and Moin Khan.
Wicket-keeper Khan hit the last three deliveries of Bishop’s final over for sixes against Pakistan in Sharjah in 1995 in the triangular tournament which also included Sri Lanka.
Now fellow tv commentators, Ramiz might occasionally remind `Bish’ of it but I’ve never heard him.
The “Big Bird”, Joel Garner, with his height and his yorkers, was rated as tight as they came for the “death” overs. Yet he went for 22 in the last in 1985, also in Sharjah against Pakistan, Imran Khan blasting three sixes.
But, because it was the World Cup and given the circumstances, Courtney Walsh’s were the most publicised and unforgettable last over demolitions.
In the opening match of the 1992 Cup in Gujrunwala, in Pakistan, Walsh went for 16 in the 48th over and 13 off four balls in the last as England clinched an unlikely victory by two wickets.
A week later in Lahore, he started the final over with Pakistan (who else?) needing 14 to win and the last pair, Abdul Qadir and Salim Jaffer, together. They got them off the last ball but would not have done so except for Walsh’s sporting generosity.
With two needed off the last ball, Jaffer was backing up so far out of his crease at the non-striker’s end that Walsh could have ran him out. Instead, he merely halted his run and allowed the embarrassed Pakistani to regain his ground only for Qadir to clinch the match with two to third man off the last ball.
The difference in those days was that the West Indies won more than they lost.
