Rain, No Play

After their 8 wicket thrashing of England in the third ODI at Bridgetown, its clear that the Windies have the swagger of a winning team. Success breeds success, and the Windies are oozing confidence, batting positively, fielding crisply and bowling aggressively.

Its also equally clear that England are a broken team - lacking in motivation to win, content in going through the motions, longing for the plane ride home. England, frankly, find themselves in a position that the Windies have often found themselves in until recently. The forlorn expressions on players' faces, the rumours of disunity in the team, the lack of joy on the field and the inevitable spiral to defeat after defeat. If not for John Dyson's Duckworth/Lewis error in the first ODI, England would have been winless against the West Indies this year.

On Sunday, the Windies will go for the ODI series victory to add to the Test series win and the Twenty20 demolition. After that they'll seek to close out the ODI series 4-1 and send England back home in further misery. With the trajectory of the fates of the two teams, a 4-1 drubbing is in the cards.

Is Daryl Harper biased against the West Indies?

Daren Powell in the first Test at Jamaica.
Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Brendan Nash in the fourth Test.

Can this man really be this stupid? In either case, what the hell is he doing umpiring a cricket match?

UPDATE: Harper later proved that he held no bias against the Windies, making similarly ridiculous decisions that favoured the Windies in the final Test as an on field umpire.

Whats the point of using television referrals if the umpire looking at the screen is a damn idiot?

William Perkins paddles a Brett Lee delivery over the keeper for 4. Image from Cricinfo match gallery.

In a carnival like atmosphere at the first ever Twenty20 International held on Caribbean soil, yesterday in Bridgetown, the Windies thoroughly demolished Australia. After rain had delayed the start of the match and eventually reduced the contest to 11 overs a piece, Australia were sent in to bat by stand in captain Dwayne Bravo. Both sides featured many young players making their Twenty20 International debuts and for some players it was their first times playing for the senior team. Such was the case for Aussie openers, Shaun Marsh (29 off 22 balls), son of Geoff Marsh, and Luke Ronchi (36 off 22 balls). Marsh and Ronchi put on 57 for the first wicket and led the Aussies to post a competitive total of 97 off 11 overs.

That total was simply too little, as Xavier Marshall at one point threatened to knock off the runs within 5 overs. Marshall belted 3 sixes and 3 fours in making 36 off only 15 balls. He was ultimately undone when he tried to paddle a slow full toss from Shane Watson behind him, only for the ball to ricochet off his shoulder and back onto the pitch. Marshall had set off for the run, not realising that the ball had gone straight back to the bowler. By the time Marshall turned back to get to his crease, Watson a swooped in and rattled the stumps with a direct hit. Debutante William Perkins (9) of Stanford 20/20 fame, Denesh Ramdin (8) and another debutante Andre Fletcher (7n.o.) each made single digits as captain Bravo (28 off 15 balls) finished off the innings. The match, like the World Cup final last year, ended in near darkness, as one continues to struggle to understand why the new stadia built for the 2007 World Cup across the Caribbean were not all fitted with flood lights.

At lunch, in chase of the record 475 needed for victory, the Windies were 316/5, still 159 runs away, and having lost the wickets of Bravo and Chanderpaul. After it appeared that Chanderpaul and Bravo would have batted through to lunch, both fell in quick succession about 20 minutes from the interval. Chanderpaul and Bravo had taken the score to 303/3 with Bravo making an attacking 69. After taking 3 sixes off Beau Casson, Bravo however, went on the front foot and pushed a Casson delivery low into the hands of short cover. The next over, Stuart Clark had Chanderpaul lbw to a delivery that hit in line but was too high to hit the wicket. The umpire adjudged it close enough and gave Chanderpaul out for 50. Chanderpaul had crossed the 8,000 Test runs plateau during his innings.Read more

The Windies closed the fourth days play of the Tgird and final Test in Bridgetown on 235/3 needing a further 240 runs to pull off what would be the greatest 4th innings run chase in history. However, with captain Chris Gayle, Xavier Marshall and Ramnaresh Sarwan back in the hut, and with Sewnarine Chattergoon limping on crutches, victory is at best a remote prospect.

Earlier in the day, Australia had piled up a mammoth 474 run lead after declaring at lunch on 439/5 with Simon Katich making 157 and Phil Jacques 108. Sulieman Benn was the leading bowler for the Windies, taking 3/154 off a mammoth 47 overs. After lunch, Marshall opened in place of the injured Chattergoon and with Gayle, put on 64 for the first wicket before Gayle got out playing a reckless cross batted pull shot. Marshall, who was dropped on 1, made the most of his reprieve and blasted a career best 85, surpassing his previous first-class best of 53, made in the previous Test. Sarwan (43) and Marshall put on 95 runs for the second wicket before Sarwan fell lbw to the offspin of Michael Clarke. Dwayne Bravo then joined Shiv Chanderpaul at the crease and the two have so far added 54 for the fourth wicket.

Bravo finally got some 'luck' as after being given out at least twice in the series to phantom catches as a batsman and also twice being denied wickets as a bowler due to umpiring errors, he was given not out after he apparently gloved a delivery from Brett Lee to the keeper. Lee almost had Bravo again when a yorker appeared to be plumb lbw, but the umpire turned down the appeal. Bravo made the most of his unexpected fortune and took on Lee in a classic confrontation between fast bowler and batsman that left the crowd oohing and ahhing. Lee, despite some excellent fast bowling to Bravo, was unable to dislodge him and when the Windies had piled up 235/3 at the end of the day's play, suddenly the unthinkable win in chasing 475 somehow seemed plausible. And with only 240 runs needed on the final day, barring rain, its either going to be an Aussie win or a Windies win. Batting out the day will almost certainly bring the 240 runs needed for victory.Read more

[image from Digicel's Match gallery]

After bowling out the Australians for a mere 251, the Windies failed to capitalise on the advantage they had as they managed a mere 216 in reply on the second day of the Third Test at Bridgetown. Once again, Shivnarine Chanderpaul was the anchor of the innings. Chanderpaul was left undefeated on 79 as the last 6 wickets fell for 48 runs. It was the kind of pathetic batting display that Windies fans have long hoped to see the end of.

The innings got off to a shaky start with openers Chris Gayle (14) and Sewnarine Chattergoon (6) falling cheaply. Gayle and Chattergoon were playing their first match in the series due to injury. Sarwan fell shortly after at 64/3. Xavier Marshall played some good drives in his 39, but one felt he was too aggressive and that his dismissal was always imminent. Dwayne Bravo joined Chanderpaul and they rebuilt the innings, taking the total from 108-4 to 168-5 when Bravo was caught down the legside. Bravo's dismissal was the correct decision (this time), and was definitely ironic given Bravo being given out in the last Test in a phantom legside catch decision and the umpires' giving Aussie Andrew Symonds twice not out to legitimate legside catches off Bravo's bowling in this series.

At Bravo's dismissal, the wheels came off the innings as the Windies tail was simply out of their league. Some like Daren Powell and Jerome Taylor played horrible shots. Some like Fidel Edwards got deliveries that were simply too good for them.

With a deficit of only 35 runs, all is not lost for the Windies, but they will have to once again depend on their bowlers to get them back in the game, as their batsmen, save the dependable Chanderpaul, make the most of the advantage they gained after dismissing Australia for 251. Chanderpaul, the anchor of the Windies' batting since the retirement of Brian Lara, has made scores of 118, 11, 107 n.o., 77 n.o. and 79 n.o. in this series. In fact, since Chanderpaul became the 'biggest bat' in the side on Lara's retirement, he has averaged 110.45 with 5 centuries and 8 fifties in the 11 Tests he has played. And that against opposition the likes of England, South Africa, Sri Lanka and now Australia. Is there any doubt that Chanderpaul is one of the all time great West Indian batsmen?

We've enjoyed seeing Fidel Edwards take the fight to Brett Lee especially since Lee floored Shivnarine Chanderpaul in the first Test at Kingston. There is a history between the two however, that goes back to at least 2005 when the Windies toured Australia. There, just like with this series, Edwards made sure to give Lee a taste of his own medicine.

Listen live to the ongoing Windies-Australia series on CANA's stream here. The Windies are currently 64/3 with Gayle, Chattergoon and Sarwan back in the hut. The Aussies made 251 all out.

I'm almost serious with that title. But seriously now, in the 21st century why does the game have to be subjected to these ridiculous decisions? TV replays are allowed for certain decisions (run-outs, stumpings, determining if a ball hit the ground before being caught), why can't TV replays be used for all decisions where there is doubt?Read more