da luck： Port-Of-Spain – After two days of the first Test they have ever playedagainst the only opponents they can justifiably claim to rank belowthem at present in the world game, the West Indies are in familiarstrife
Tony Cozier18-Mar-2000Port-Of-Spain – After two days of the first Test they have ever playedagainst the only opponents they can justifiably claim to rank belowthem at present in the world game, the West Indies are in familiarstrife.Their always unreliable batting, minus its only proven world-classmember, once more let them down, falling to spirited Zimbabwe bowlingfor 187 half-hour after lunch on the second day of the inaugural matchat the Queen’s Park Oval.As they have done countless times over the years, the indomitableveterans, Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh, then energised the 11West Indians on the field and the couple of thousand in the standswith three quick wickets.But an unlucky umpiring break and an obdurate, unbroken partnership of82 between the left-handed captain, Andy Flower, and the right-handedTrevor Gripper defied them for the remaining 3-1/4 hours of the dayand carried Zimbabwe through to 109 without further loss at the close.Ambrose struck with his first ball, an on-target, perfect-lengthdelivery that struck left-hander Neil Johnson’s pad in front of middleand leg-stump for umpire George Sharp’s straightforward decision.At the opposite end, Walsh clipped right-hander Grant Flower’stentative outside-edge for a lap-high catch to Sherwin Campbell atsecond slip so that both openers had been despatched without a runscored.When the dangerous Murray Goodwin’s forcing backfoot stroke off Walshdeflected a catch to Chris Gayle ten minutes to tea, Zimbabwe were 27for three and the West Indies could sense disintegration.First ball after the interval they endured the kind of bad luck notuncommon in any cricket match but always hard to take, especially whenthings develop as they did. Flower was yet to score when Walsh’schest-high lifter passed him down the leg-side and brought a roaredclaim for a wicket-keeper’s catch that would have carried the durableJamaican to within seven of passing Kapil Dev’s elusive Test record of436 wickets.For once, umpire Steve Bucknor failed to detect the deflection off theglove that was clear on the close-up, slow-motion television replayand Flower proceeded to bat with the assurance that has brought him anaverage of 44.48 in the 39 consecutive Tests he and his country haveplayed since their accession to such status in 1992.He was not flawless. There were a few uncertain edges and a couple ofaerial strokes that just eluded off-side fielders.But the only one that went to hand, off Walsh when 38, ankle-high andto the left of third slip, could not be grasped by Ricardo Powell,temporarily on the field for Ambrose.Flower raised the first half-century of the match just before poorlight ended the day seven overs early when he was 52.The adhesive Gripper, justifying his surname, was unbeaten on 31 afterfour hours and 166 balls of chanceless defence.The West Indies bowling looked threadbare once Ambrose and Walsh wereresting in the outfield. Franklyn Rose took a few overs to find hisline and was the best of the others, but Reon King was all over theplace and Chris Gayle’s steady but uncomplicated off-spin troubledneither batsman.Unless the veterans strike early again, another long hard day seems tolie ahead.Zimbabwe had imposed themselves on a West Indies team lacking bothBrian Lara and self-belief in equal measure from the time Heath Streakdismissed Adrian Griffith with the third ball of the match andcontinued to do so from the start yesterday.As he did on Thursday, Streak struck in the first over, removingnightwatchman Curtly Ambrose to a wicket-keeper’s catch with his sixthball.It was an immediate setback that induced the sense of insecurity thathad characterised the West Indies batting on the first day and theynever seemed likely to recover.Their only encouragement was the batting of Wavell Hinds, the23-year-old left-hander in his debut Test who played with the samematurity and level-headedness of the other newcomer, his fellowJamaican, Chris Gayle, on the first day.Left strandedHe arrived when Sherwin Campbell was Streak’s second victim, lbwdefending from the crease, 20 minutes into the day, after a tortured24 that occupied 3-3/4 hours and 129 balls.Hinds was left stranded on 46 when his spirited last-wicketpartnership of 26 with Walsh was finally ended half-hour after lunchby the new leg-spinner Brian Murphy.For a while, the new captain, Jimmy Adams, promised to put together astand with Hinds, but when Zimbabwe turned to Murphy, the declinecontinued.Murphy, a 23-year-old student at the University of Cape Town who hasexperience in South Africa with Western Province, was drafted into theteam once it was known that Paul Strang’s shoulder injury had nothealed sufficiently to allow him to return to Test cricket.He won umpire Sharp’s approval of an lbw claim against Adams, playingwell forward to a top-spinner, and then hauled in a sharp, two-handedreturn catch to remove wicket-keeper Ridley Jacobs, the last of theseven left-handers in the West Indies order.Left with only the fast bowlers, Hinds opened out with some meatyboundaries.Rose and King did not keep him company for long, but Walsh, Testcricket’s most prolific duck-maker, matched him with a couple ofthumping boundaries down the ground.But it was much too little, much too late.