Aussies v. Windies - Second Test

[Donny]

Well he's now a double centurian, HAL.

Ponting reached his 200 and Gilly is 75 as Australia go to 3/524.

[Donny]

Ponting made a mistake and paid with his wicket.

He missed a ball down the legside and wandered out of his crease, thinking the ball hadn't been gathered by the keeper. It was.

He made 206, his highest score in Tests. Samuels was the lucky bowler but Baugh did well to complete the stumping.

Australia are now on 4/563. Gilly is 89 from 98 balls. Hogg is 16.

Waugh must still have a niggle from his injured hand.

[Donny]

Gilchrist is on 93 and Lara brings back his spearhead, Dillon.

Bang !! A six from the second ball and a two from the 5th. sees him go to 101 in 104 balls and remain undefeated as Waugh declares.

4/576 from 132.5 overs. Hogg was 17 n.o.

The Ponting/Gilchrist partnership ? 172.

[Donny]

Dizzy took a wicket in his first over and continued to bowl well for 1/25 from 13 overs.

Lara and Ganga added 158 for the 3rd. wicket before Hogg bowled the Windies captain around his legs, for 91.

At 3/186, they are 390 behind and need 190 more to avoid the follow-on.

[Donny]

Australia in charge despite Lara's fightback
Andrew Miller - 20 April 2003


Once again, this was not a day to be a bowler. Saturday's play produced 391 runs for the loss of three wickets, two of them extremely fortuitous. Today, the respective figures were 371, four, one. But whereas on day one, the Australians made every ounce of the running, this time they were forced to do their fair share of the chasing as well.

After Ricky Ponting had completed the first double-century of his career, and Adam Gilchrist had added a typically high-octane hundred of his own, Daren Ganga and Brian Lara launched a thrilling final-session counterattack, reprising their efforts in the first Test at Georgetown by adding 158 for West Indies's third wicket. But the Australians, as always, had the last laugh. When Brad Hogg bowled Lara round his legs for 91 with two overs remaining, the gloss, and several layers of undercoat, had been taken off West Indies's effort.

It was a crushing disappointment for the Trinidad crowd, who have still to witness their hero score a Test century on home soil (his highest score is 96). But after the West Indian torpor of the first two sessions, any emotion was better than none. By tea, when Steve Waugh had declared with Australia on 576 for 4, and West Indies had lost both their openers inside seven overs, a devastating rout was the only bankable option.

After that soul-destroying first day, the West Indian fielders emitted a heavy air of resignation as Ponting and Gilchrist strode to the wicket to resume the carnage this morning. Ponting, who is currently batting with an authority scarcely rivalled in Test history, jogged to his third score of 150 in eight Tests with barely a murmur of resistance, and was even allowed a 25-minute net as the new ball was shelved in favour of Marlon Samuels's speculative offbreaks. The pair added a further 126 runs in the morning session, with Gilchrist shrugging off a half-baked attempt to rough him up to plunder leg-side boundaries at will, and the die was cast.

The way he was batting, only an accident or a lapse of concentration could have dislodged Ponting, who became only the fifth Australian to score a double-hundred in the Caribbean. In fact, it required both, as he swept at Samuels and sauntered out of his ground to jog a single, only for the wicketkeeper Carlton Baugh to whip off the bails as Ponting backflipped towards his crease.

Umpire Asoka de Silva, who had been gazing idly towards the fine-leg boundary and may have helped fool Ponting into believing that Baugh had not gathered the ball, acknowledged the appeal without bothering with a replay. He was fortunate not to have dropped his third clanger of the innings.

All of which overshadowed yet another Gilchrist special, which included 11 fours and two sixes from just 104 balls. Astonishingly, it was only the eighth Test century of his career – somehow, he seems to have scored so many more. Waugh declared the moment he reached three figures, and West Indies were left with the best part of 50 overs to salvage the match.

Immediately, the Queen's Park Oval pitch was transformed as Brett Lee and Jason Gillespie swiftly accounted for Devon Smith, for a fifth-ball duck, and Wavell Hinds, whose frenetic innings of 20 contained five fours and a complete lack of footwork.

But Ganga, whose selection ahead of Chris Gayle now looks like a masterstroke rather than a cut-and-paste job, held firm and counterpunched boldly while Lara took time to find his range. When he did, it was a spectacular explosion of strokeplay, mostly at the expense of Stuart MacGill, whose seven overs were flailed for 50 runs. Alas, the pressure of the occasion started to bite with 20 minutes remaining, and he brought down the shutters just that fraction too soon.

[HAL]

I dont think these terminal screens support video. . . .

[Fradam]

Da Silva is a shocking umpire. You don't bring in video umpires coz of one bad umpire, what you do is reomve the umpire. No video on lbw's. Sure you can put the tramlines on the screen but then you have to look at the side on angle as well to see how far the batsman is down the wicket as depth perception on tv is not good plus it wastes too much time.

Lets get some decent umpires. Pick the 8 best umpires in the world for your panel, not one from each nation or however it works at the moment.

Back to the game well done to Lehmann for finally coming up with the goods. and Punter for doing what we expect him to do and illy for being Gilly.

[Donny]

That's all I'm talking about, m8. The tramlines.

The ump would only go for the 3rd. umpy if everything else was in place. ie. Was it hitting the stumps? Was it too high? He still makes these decisions.

It's not only the 'bad' umpires who get this one wrong.

[Fradam]

I cant remember Bucknor or Sheppard giving out too many woeful lbw's like da silva has done. It is the poor umpires. A half decent umpire would know without thinking about it that Langer and Hayden wern't out. You don't need video for that, we could all see it wasnt out without it. Remove the poor umpire, not the system.

[Donny]

The windies are 3/234 after the first hour.

Seemed somewhat strange when Waugh opened the bowling with himself and Hogg. Especially when you have selected 5 bowlers and your two quicks are of such class.

Lee is only now coming on, after 60 minutes of play.

[Donny]

The Windies are 4/273 at lunch.

Ganga is 117 n.o. and Sarwan made 26, bowled by Lee.

The deficit ie 303 so they need 104 to avoid the follow on.

[Donny]

6/309 as I head to bed. 3 hours of play have produced 3/123.

Lee has 3/67 and Gillespie, 2/37.

[Culprit]

Windies fight back 408 all out. We are 1 for 31. It appears that this is a batsmens wicket. The yorker that cleaned bowled Sarwan was brilliant by Lee.

Interesting to see what transpires, in saying that we are more consistant.

[Donny]

Lee took 4/69, Gillespie, 3/50 and MacGill, 2/98. Samuels made 68.

Australia lead by 199.

[Northern Pie]

Just how many more shocking LBW decisions will it take to get rid of De Silva as an international Umpire....Disgusting...

Cheers