RESULT
Hobart, December 09 - 12, 2000, West Indies tour of Australia
439/9d & 210/3

Match drawn

Report

West Indians eye reinvention

If there is to be a turning point on its current visit to Australia, then it's just possible that the touring West Indian cricket team produced it in the four-day match against Australia 'A' which concluded here at the beautiful Bellerive Oval in

John Polack
12-Dec-2000
If there is to be a turning point on its current visit to Australia, then it's just possible that the touring West Indian cricket team produced it in the four-day match against Australia 'A' which concluded here at the beautiful Bellerive Oval in Hobart today.
At least that's the hope of the encouraged coaching duo of Roger Harper and Jeffrey Dujon, each of whom believes that their team will emerge from this contest in better mental shape for the fresh challenges which lie ahead.
While the match ultimately finished in a high-scoring draw on one of Australia's more placid pitches, the West Indians could not help but to draw inspiration from the sizzling 365 run partnership between Brian Lara (231) and Ridley Jacobs (131) that lifted the team to a first innings total of 492 and toward their most honourable first-class result of the tour.
"We managed to put 492 runs on the board; we had two batsmen who played really tremendous knocks. And they put together a mammoth partnership," was Harper's assessment of the decisive factors to emerge from the match.
Ahead of the commencement of the Third Test against Australia (which begins on Friday in Adelaide), Harper was in a generally upbeat frame of mind about the effect that the events of the past four days will have on his entire line-up.
"I think that must make a statement to the rest of the guys in the team and show them that, from any position, it's possible for us to turn things around," he enthused, while commenting about the spark that the two left handers had afforded their teammates.
"It will say to the guys that whatever it is, whoever is at the wicket, at whatever stage, must believe that they can get us to the position we want to be at."
Former wicketkeeper and now assistant coach Dujon went further, citing Lara's sparkling return to form as a key potential motivator for the team.
"The fielding today, the body language and the better line and length bowling showed there was a confidence lift," he said.
"The better you start to feel mentally, the less that your mind focuses on all the negative things."
Of Lara's own potential to reinvent himself as a threat to Australia after four failures in the series to date, Dujon was emphatic in his claim that the star left hander will approach the match in a more relaxed and confident frame of mind.
"His confidence was coming back after the first night (on Sunday, when he reached a mark of 62* by stumps) and you could almost predict what would happen the next day. I'm not at all worried about him. It (the Third Test) will be the first time (in a while) that he's really looking forward to going out there."
As for the final day of the match itself, the Australia 'A' upper order availed itself of the opportunity for batting practice, reaching 3/210 in its second innings before the match was terminated an hour ahead of time. Under skies which drenched the ground in sunshine for the fourth successive day, opener Jamie Cox (94) gave a small crowd a taste of what Australian teams may have missed in the past, and captain Damien Martyn (58*) a taste of what might still be in store.
In his first representative appearance for an Australian side through a glittering thirteen year first-class career, 31 year old Cox played a composed, patient innings. Typically sound in defence and strong through the cover and point regions, he abundantly underlined his quality against an attack that made quick run scoring an arduous task with an excellent line and length. At the very least, a spot in an Ashes touring party can not be out of the question.
Martyn, meanwhile, constructed an unbeaten half-century at the end of the day with a minimum of fuss. It was an ideal way to finalise his own preparations ahead of his next encounter with the potentially revitalised West Indians in Adelaide.