Hero Martyn ready to be dropped

ADELAIDE - For the second time this year, Damien Martyn has pulled Australia out of deep trouble in the Test arena only to concede he won't play in the next match.

It sounds like a rough deal but the West Australian says he could not be happier with his current lot in Australian cricket.

Martyn extinguished his Test demons today when he scored an unbeaten 34 to steer Australia to a tense five-wicket win over the West Indies in the third Test in Adelaide, holding the home team steady after they crashed to 4-48.

But when the fourth Test begins next Tuesday, the 29-year-old Martyn expects to make way for Steve Waugh's return from injury.

It was the same in New Zealand in April, when Martyn marked his return from a six-year exile in Test cricket with an excellent 89 not out in the third Test in Hamilton to spark an Australian win.

He came to the crease when Australia was crippled at 5-29 and, by the time the next Test began, Martyn was gone and injured batsman Ricky Ponting was back.

"I know I'm the next cab off the rank as a batsman and I know that I'm in and out," Martyn said today.

"This Test is a bonus. I was injured here eight years ago (and missed the Test) and to come back and make the winning runs, that's great for me. "I can't be happier, I'm pretty pumped."

Martyn batted for more than four hours in Adelaide, scoring 46 not out and 34 to lift his average this year to an outstanding 80. 25.

He looks, and freely admits, to being a much more mature player to the raw batsman who made his debut against the West Indies just one month after his 21st birthday.

It was a career which promised much but stalled in nasty fashion when Martyn just failed to get Australia home against South Africa in a gripping Sydney Test in the first week of 1994.

Martyn dug in as Australia tried to make 117 for victory, but he was out to a loose shot just seven runs short of the target.

Australia lost by five runs and Martyn was banished from the Test team. The situation was similar last night when Martyn began his second innings but he said he did not think about his disastrous Sydney innings as he set up an emotional victory with longtime mates Justin Langer and Adam Gilchrist.

"Sydney didn't come into it all," Martyn said.

"Being not out overnight is nervous anyway. You play the innings over in your mind and you play the innings in bed about 10 times.

"It was great to hit the winning runs in a Test match and, whether I'm part of it again, at least I can go away and say I contributed to the win.

"I've never felt so much adrenalin hitting the winning runs. Batting with (Gilchrist and Langer) we've batted all our cricket together over the last 10 years."

Martyn will tomorrow be named in the Australian squad for the fourth Test but he will drop off if Waugh is able to pass a fitness test.