Australia closes in on dizzy prospect of another huge win

Paceman Jason Gillespie (3/8) has smashed through a feeble West Indian top order late on the third day of the Fourth Test here at the Melbourne Cricket Ground today to have Australia thundering toward another mammoth victory. With three scalps in the space of sixteen deliveries, the South Australian speedster has, to be precise, left his team a mere seven wickets away from wrapping up this match tomorrow.

It was the fourteenth day of this series; it was the thirteenth on which Australia dominated. By its conclusion (with West Indies at 3/10 and still an irrelevant 452 runs away from what would shape as the most impossible of wins), the prospect of yet another thumping Test triumph was the only thing apparently left on the cards.

The Australian upper order was a model of efficiency today, simply accumulating runs before an inevitable closure of the side's second innings at a mark of 5/262 thirty-eight minutes before the scheduled drawing of stumps. It was the kind of display during which Justin Langer (80) normally revels, and he made sure that he did not let slip a golden opportunity to improve upon a generally unremarkable personal series. Mark Waugh (78*) weighed in heavily too and the result, at the end of it all, was a 461 run lead. It allowed the tourists no way out of a thick and gloomy mire.

And lest it be thought that the visitors might finally have shown the sort of application at the top of an innings that is so often the prerequisite of long exhibitions at the crease, that idea can already be scrapped. Gillespie's efforts in removing Daren Ganga (0), Wavell Hinds (4) and Brian Lara (0) in the space of the eleven overs that the Australians left themselves to bowl prior to stumps have already reduced the West Indians to second innings calamity. Ganga failed to defend a ball on an off stump line and found himself lbw; Hinds edged to fourth slip; Lara was comprehensively bowled by a wonderful delivery. Lara's dismissal, in itself, was probably a metaphor for the West Indians' woes; completely out-thought, he shouldered arms to a delivery that he seemed to believe was slanted away from him. Instead, it hit the seam, moved into him and crashed, delightfully from a jovial home crowd of 19896's point of view, into the off bail.

Earlier, Langer had been in his element grafting, pummelling, shovelling runs. He arrived at the crease following the early departure of opener Michael Slater (4) to one of the very best deliveries of the day, a nicely controlled Mervyn Dillon (1/68) ball that pitched on an ideal length, moved marginally off the seam and snared a thick outside edge on its way to Lara at first slip. He did not leave until the point of tea.

Along the way, he shared in two controlled partnerships - one of forty-one runs with Matthew Hayden (30) for the second wicket and another of 116 with Waugh for the third - which had the MCG pitch looking a different beast from the one which helped bring the West Indian batsmen to their knees late in the piece.

The Western Australian left hander's method, predominantly, was to play straight. Not one of the nine boundaries that he struck in an innings that spanned close to three and a half hours, in fact, was hit square of the wicket. It was only toward the end of his stay that any genuine chinks in his armour emerged. He survived a close decision as he drove one delivery - on what television replays suggested might have been a half volley - to cover with his score at 71 and then finally made the long trek back to the pavilion when a Jimmy Adams (1/18) ball found the outside edge of his defensive bat on the way to Ganga at slip.

The West Indians searched hard for answers to their ills and looked earnestly for a way through the Australian batting order. And, in truth, they bowled an honest line and length and applied themselves well. Wicketkeeper Ridley Jacobs also covered himself in further glory by joining David Murray and Courtney Browne as the only West Indian fieldsmen to claim a total of nine dismissals in a Test match. But there was no reply to their questions and they detected no obvious way to penetrate. By the time that Ricky Ponting (26*) pounded twenty-one runs from the bowling of Colin Stuart (1/66) in what proved to be the final over of the innings, they were actually tending toward many bad habits again.

By far the most unpredictable aspect of the day was the complexion of Melbourne's weather. Through the afternoon, the action was played out under sunny skies, the brightness of which stood in complete contrast to the generally dull hue that featured across the horizon during the morning session. Driving rain actually wiped out as many as fifty-six minutes through the early stages of the day. At that stage, conditions-wise, it was difficult to fathom what would come next. It was never possible to apply the same observation to events on the field of play itself.