Windies stutter after strong stand

Cricket365
April 17, 2012

Much of the Windies' hard work done by Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Narsingh Deonarine was laid to waste by a flurry of wickets late on day three of the second Test against Australia.

In a day that ebbed and flowed through power failures, rain delays and dogged defence, the hosts will be disappointed to have thrown away a strong position to end the day on 252 for nine, still 59 runs in arrears.

After an initial delay of 20 minutes due to a power failure, the West Indies were solid and nothing more in their defence as Darren Bravo and Chanderpaul made themselves comfortable although rarely troubling the scorers.

It was the unlikely Michael Hussey who made the breakthrough for Australia, snagging Bravo lbw with a delivery that moved away from the batsman.

What followed was a period of first defiance and then determined scoring as Chanderpaul was joined by Narsingh Deonarine and the pair provided much frustration for the Australians.

The duo batted throughout the afternoon session which came early as a result of an almost customary rain shower but not even the elements seemed to deter Chanderpaul and Deonarine. The new ball certainly didn't.

Ben Hilfenhaus and even more so James Pattinson were wasteful with the new cherry and Deonarine soon progressed past the fifty mark while Chanderpaul zoned in on another hundred.

But then it all went horribly wrong.

Nathan Lyon was the man to do the damage, striking with the first ball of a new spell. Going on the drive, Deonarine (55) was drawn out of his crease and with the ball spinning away from him, the bat was beaten and Wade whipped off the stumps, ending a 130-run stand.

The spinner struck in his next over too, and it was the big fish Chanderpaul who departed. Pushing forward, the left-hander was beaten by the slightest bit of turn and was given lbw six runs short of his century.

Calm heads were needed but skipper Darren Sammy (one) provided anything but that – caught on the midwicket fence as he attempted to pull only his second delivery.

Lyon made it four in four overs when Shane Shillingford (four) was smartly caught by Ed Cowan at short leg. Not quite done, Lyon picked up what had appeared a highly unlikely five-fer when Kemar Roach (duck) was caught down the leg side.

Replays were inconclusive but Roach may have been hard done by, with the deviation perhaps coming off his pad. The tail-ender had his team-mates to blame for having wasted their two reviews, though.

With five wickets having fallen for just 19 runs, the final salvo of the day was a horror one for the Windies. Carlton Baugh (17*) and Fidel Edwards (0*) will get day four underway with a deficit of 59 runs still to surmount.