Batting woes in Windies camp (9 April 1999)

9 April 1999

Batting woes in Windies camp

Tony Cozier

The statistics do not reveal the rekindling of the spirit that had been lost for so long but the final averages of the Cable & Wireless Test series once more expose the deficiencies that continue to plague West Indies cricket.

Brian Lara's return to the high-scoring consistency that had once been a feature of his batting inspired his team's remarkable recovery following the all-out 51 and defeat by 312 runs in the First Test but the gap between him and the other batsmen is dramatic and worrying.

While he totalled 546 runs, at an average of 91, no other batsman passed 200 and opener Sherwin Campbell's 28.14 was the next highest average. He scored three hundreds and a fifty, the others could only scrape together Campbell's 103 in Barbados and a half-century each from Jimmy Adams, Ridley Jacobs, Adrian Griffith and Dave Joseph.

Campbell had two separate partners as the futile search for reliable opening batsman continued. Griffith's dogged 59 in a losing cause in the final Test on Wednesday indicated encouraging temperament if not convincing technique.

Shivnarine Chanderpaul's absence through his shoulder injury surrounded the No.3 position with such chaos that Joseph found himself batting in a position he had never even filled for the Leeward Islands.

The two middle-order veterans, Jimmy Adams and the returning Carl Hooper, were inconsistent although Adams's 94 at Sabina Park and second innings 38 in partnership with Lara were vital beyond their face value.

The bowling also revealed a familiar imbalance.

The remarkably resilient Courtney Walsh sent down 208.1 overs, more than anyone else on either side, for 26 wickets at 20.73 each. Curtly Ambrose had 19 wickets for 184.2 overs at 22.26 each.

The next highest wicket-taker was the off-spinner Nehemiah Perry with 10 in three Tests in his debut series-and even so he was used less than Hooper and Adams in the final Test.

The two new fast bowlers, the left-arm Pedro Collins and Corey Collymore, were both impressive but hardly successful. Collins's eight wickets included Australia's captain and leading batsman, Steve Waugh, three times.

The averages also revealed some unexpected problems for Australia.

Only Steve Waugh (409) scored more than 300 runs, only he and Ricky Ponting averaged over 40.

Fast bowler Glenn McGrath's record 30 wickets in a West Indies series were 28 more than the next man, leg-spinner Stuart MacGill, and if Jason Gillespie's 11, at 21.9 each, were reward for penetrative fast bowling, the back strain that kept him out of the final Test raised the spectre of the injuries that have plagued him during his young career.

Most troubling of all for the Australians were champion leg-spinner Shane Warne's two wickets that led to his controversial omission from the final Test and raised doubts about his future and long-serving wicketkeeper Ian Healy's lack of form with the bat and rare inconsistency with the gloves.

Source :: The Trinidad Express (https://www.trinidad.net/express/)