Chanders shines but Windies struggle

Their domestic cricket has been in turmoil, their cricket headquarters pad-locked but yesterday Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Narsingh Deonarine gave the Guyanese people and the region as a whole, something to smile about, as they led a fightback for the West Indies against Australia on the third day of the second Digicel cricket Test at the Queen’s Park Oval.

Scores: Australia 311 versus West Indies 252/9. At the fall of local star Darren Bravo with an even 100 runs on the tins, the Guyanese duo came together, and underlined the importance of hard work. Bravo had looked in fine touch until his wicket was taken by part-time bowler and full time partnership breaker Michael Hussey. He trapped Bravo leg-before for 38 after the Windies had resumed on the overnight position of 49 for three. While Chanderpaul and Deonarine were counting boundaries, the crowd was really into their offerings and the deejay was blasting Terry Gajraj’s ‘Guyanese Baboo’. ‘Baboo’ is used as a Hindi courtesy title; equivalent to English ‘Mr’ and Chanderpaul was befitting of the title “Mr Cricket” yesterday. Ironically Mike Hussey who topscored for Australia with 73 in their first innings is known as “Mr Cricket”.

 

The men from the land of many waters were interrupted by the elements during their stand but they stayed focussed on their task, which essentially was to get their team as close as possible to 311 runs. The rain came down after lunch and robbed the spectators of one hour and 41 minutes play. Chanderpaul and Deonarine added 130 runs for the fifth wicket and once they were at the wicket, West Indian optimism never wavered. Their stand was the best by a West Indian pair against Australia for the fifth wicket at the Queen’s Park Oval, eclipsing the previous mark of 100 between Sir Vivian Richards and Gus Logie in 1984. The importance of their partnership could not be underestimated as once Deonarine was dismissed, the West Indies lost five wickets for 19 runs. After reaching 55 off 139 balls with seven fours and a six, Deonarine was leg before to Nathan Lyon. He was soon followed by the Tiger who was beaten by Lyon and trapped plumb in front six short of his 26th Test century. In all he faced 217 balls striking 10 fours and a six.

 

At this stage Lyon had his tail up and immediately dispatched Darren Sammy (1), Shane Shillingford and Kemar Roach (0). The day began with an unusual delay because of a power outage at the Oval. Play was scheduled to start at 9.30 am due to time lost because of rain on the second day. However, when the players took the field at 9.27 am, they had to mill around without starting the match as there was no television coverage and they would not have been able to use the DRS for any decisions they wanted reviewed. It is also understood that the other factor that delayed play was the fact that Skysports holds the rights for the cricket and play could not have started without Sky distributing a feed to their subscribers.  Play finally got underway at 9.50 am—a loss of 20 minutes. Play starts at 9.30 am today, weather and electricity permitting. 

 

Scoreboard 

West Indies vs Australia

Australia 1st inns 311

 

West Indies inns

 

A Barath lbw Beer 7

K Brathwaite lbw Hilfenhaus 0

K Powell lbw Pattinson 19

D Bravo lbw Hussey 38

S Chanderpaul lbw Lyon 94

N Deonarine st Wade b Lyon 55

C Baugh not out 17

D Sammy c Hussey b Lyon 1

S Shillingford c Cowan b Lyon 4

K Roach c Wade b Lyon 0

F Edwards not out 0

Extras lb8, w1, nb8 17

Total for 9 wkts 252

Fall of wkts: 0, 26, 38, 100, 230, 231, 237, 241, 249.   

Bowling: M Beer 25-9-52-1, B Hilfenhaus 16-4-39-1, N Lyon 28.5-8-68-5, J Pattinson 11-2-40-1 (6nb), M Hussey 6-1-19-1(1w), S Watson 12-5-14-0, D Warner 3-1-9-0, M Clarke 2-0-3-0.