WEST INDIES v AUSTRALIA 1990-91

Toss Australia. At 328 for six at lunch on the second day, Australia had seemingly batted themselves into a comfortable, if not impregnable, position. By lunch next day, they were 5 behind and had taken only two West Indian wickets. The spectacular and sudden shift clearly stunned them, and they showed little fight thereafter, with the result that they were almost beaten by an innings.

The responsibility for the transformation lay with Richardson. Arriving at the wicket in the third over, he launched himself into an immediate and devastating assault on the bowling, encouraged by the ideal conditions offered by the ground where he had recorded his two highest Test scores. By the end of the second day he was 114 not out, having scored 106 off 41 overs after tea, and when finally he was lbw to McDermott, third ball after lunch next day, he had been batting for five and threequarter hours. In this time he received 260 balls and hit two sixes, both from hooks, and 26 fours, mostly with searing cuts and square-drives. Haynes, sensibly flowing along in his slipstream, helped him add 297, eclipsing by 130 runs their previous second-wicket record against Australia. Haynes's sixteenth Test century, containing seventeen fours in five and a quarter hours (211 balls), was ended by a catch at silly point off Border's left-arm spin, but even when Richardson was dismissed at 353, West Indies continued to build their lead at a rapid rate. Border embarrassed his principal bowlers with his five for 68 from 30 overs, and, as he observed later, the main difference between the teams was the rate at which they scored their runs. While Australia managed an average of 2.98 in their first innings, West Indies maintained 3.69 over 153.5 overs, helped by five sixes and 72 fours.

In their first innings, Australia had laboured throughout the first day to end with 249 for six off 83 overs, their attitude influenced by the early loss of Taylor and Boon. Marsh, so dominant in the previous two one-day internationals, took 5 hours 25 minutes over a solid 94 before he sliced a catch to gully in the 65th over, and it needed a stand of 101 for the seventh wicket between Waugh and Healy to send Australia past 300. When they went in a second time, an hour before lunch on the fourth day with a deficit of 221, there was nothing to play for but a draw. Yet they seemed to have little fight left, and the bizarre umpiring decision that accounted for Jones proved a further psychological setback.

Taylor, Boon and Marsh had all gone cheaply when Jones was bowled by a no-ball from Walsh. Hearing only the rattle of the stumps behind him, but not umpire Duncan's call, Jones headed for the pavilion, in the direction of extra cover, in the mistaken belief that he was out, whereupon Hooper rushed in from the slips, picked up the ball and uprooted the middle stump, to be joined by several team-mates in an appeal for run out. Alerted to the impending danger by Border, his partner, Jones had made a vain attempt to regain his ground, only to see umpire Cumberbatch at square leg, standing in his eleventh Test, rule him out - in contravention of the unequivocal Law 38.2: If a no-ball has been called, the striker shall not be given run out unless he attempts to run, which Jones obviously had not. It was instructive that both captains admitted afterwards that they too were ignorant of the relevant Law, but this was of no consolation to Jones or to Australia. McDermott was also bowled by a Walsh no-ball later in the day, though the consequence of that was simply a bye. When he was out, early next morning, Australia were still 34 in arrears with only two wickets standing, but Healy and Hughes enabled them to avoid an innings defeat with a spirited stand of 54, delaying until mid-afternoon West Indies' first Test victory on the ground since they beat Australia there in 1964-65.

Man of the Match: R. B. Richardson.

Close of play: First day, Australia 249-6 ( M. E. Waugh 30*, I. A. Healy 3*); Second day, West Indies 226-1 ( D. L. Haynes 87*, R. B. Richardson 114*); Third day, West Indies 532-9 ( M. D. Marshall 1*, B. P. Patterson 0*); Fourth day, Australia 178-7 ( I. A. Healy 10*, C. J. McDermott 0*).