More attrition and non-combativeness from the West Indies

Here is a fact. Victoria is at the bottom of the Pura Cup four-day competition. With the way they played on the first day against the West Indies, on a pitch which was somewhat slow, but did help the faster bowlers earlier on, one will have to wonder where the West Indies is in the swing of things at this level. They certainly did not look like the Test team they will be come next week, even with the fact that the XI they put out for this four-day game is almost the Test team itself.

Maybe the final score itself was a misleading fact. That the West Indies made 167 at all was due almost entirely to the contributions of three batsmen, Sherwin Campbell, who made 29 before he slashed wildly and was caught at the wicket; Ridley Jacobs, who made 28 before he ran himself out, a not uncommon occurrence; and Mahendra Nagamootoo, who after making a pummeling 48, tried a bit too hard for his 50 and was well caught by Test selectee Colin Miller, running back at mid-wicket. Simple mathematics suggests that between them, Campbell, Jacobs and Nagamootoo managed 105 runs. That means that the other batsmen, including Brian Lara, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Jimmy Adams, and Ramnaresh Sarwan, could only manage 62 runs. It was simply a continuing story of poor batsmanship, even giving some credit to the Bush Rangers' bowlers.

What is damning about this is that the same recklessness that ensued when the West Indies had been bowled out for 132 at Perth last week was again very evident at the MCG. Already it has been suggested that the discipline necessary to play well here in Australia is missing. Unfortunately for the West Indies, there is not much time left to correct such faults. Next week this time, the 1st Test at Brisbane would have already been under way. The more things change, the more they remain the same.

"We really wanted to bat out the first day", suggested Sherwin Campbell, the team's vice captain. "Being the opening batsman for any Test team brings much pressure. It is very important, in my case both as an opener and the vicecaptain, that I stay there (at the crease) as long as possible and then allow the team to gather themselves around me. Maybe both my form and my luck have been good for the two centuries I have had so far, but really, it comes down to spending as much time at the crease as is possible."

While it took Campbell all of 160 minutes to get to his 29 from 126 deliveries, so intent he was on survival, the entire West Indies innings only lasted just over twice Campbell's stay at the crease, 336 minutes. This is only another indicator that no-one else, not even the ultra-aggressive Nagamootoo, seemed intent on playing out time, as such.

Matthew Inness, the lively left handed opening bowler for Victoria, looked much better than his more illustrious team-mates, Damien Fleming and Colin Miller, the former just coming back from a broken finger, the latter already selected for Test No. 1, next week. Inness worked hard, bowled straight at the batsmen and the stumps, and was aided and abetted by some terrible batting. He clearly justified his captain, Darren Berry's decision to field first. Berry himself took five catches to help his bowlers, none more spectacular than the one he held, diving to his left, low down, to dismiss the dangerous, focussed and promising Brian Lara, from Miller's bowling.

Already it is being suggested everywhere that all of the Test matches this Australian summer would finish with at least a day to spare, with the West Indies losing all of them. If the batting, especially that of Brian Lara, Shiv Chanderpaul, Jimmy Adams and Campbell himself, do not come through, the West Indies will surely struggle much. Sarwan, incidentally, seemed to have lost his "bounce." He had better find it quickly.

Miller and Fleming bowled creditably, with Miller swinging the ball well when he operated as a fast bowler, but Inniss deserved his best figures ever, beating his 6-70, against New South Wales, achieved earlier this year.

The only bright spot for the West Indies was Nagamootoo. His aggression suggests that he could well be selected in the Test for his batting, even though he is supposedly, primarily, a leg-spinner. This West Indies cricket team needs every run it could get, from anyone willing to provide it. With Wavell Hinds and Sarwan fighting for that final middle order position, Nagamootoo could find himself batting ahead of Ridley Jacobs even.

Sherwin Campbell also suggested that he was disappointed. "Since the Test match is the next game, we certainly are looking to get some good scores here at the MCG. Hopefully, the batters would get a second hit in the 2nd innings, and maybe we will do better. We definitely need some more runs and much more confidence going into the Test. Test match cricket means that we will have to up our game somewhat. We know that we have not batted well here. Our shot selection was poor. We must focus on batting longer. While our batters might be overall confident, we are not capitalizing on the starts we have been getting. We can always say that one should learn from mistakes, but the focus and concentration must be there daily."

If the showing on Day 1 of this last game before the historic 1st Test match is to go by, the West Indies has a lot of work to do in a few days before Test No. 1. It could be very messy come next week.