The Windies will need 287 runs in their fourth innings to defeat Australia in the first Test at Kingston. A counter-attacking 79 from Andrew Symonds was the only thing that kept the Windies from having a more modest total to chase as only Brad Hodge(27) and Brad Haddin (23) managed to get into double digits. The day started promisingly enough when Daren Powell removed night watchman Mitchell Johnson in the day's first over. However, that brought Symonds to the crease and he and Hodge, with a 52 run partnership, and then he and Haddin, with a 74 run partnership, rebuilt Australia's innings.

However with the fall of Haddin at 144-7, the Windies were able to quickly wrap up the Aussie tail, taking the last 4 wickets for 23 as the men from down under fell for 167. Full credit goes to the pace of Powell and Fidel Edwards who both finished with 3 wickets, but it was Dwayne Bravo who got the key wickets of Hodge, Symonds and Haddin. Bravo bowled with nice control and kept the batsmen from scoring too quickly and was rewarded for his efforts with figures of 4-47. The one kink in the bowling attack today was debutante Amit Jaggernauth, who Symonds in particular punished for 22 runs from his 3 overs. Rain, No Play hopes the selectors continue with him and not discard him, as spinners typically take a little while to settle into Test cricket.

The target is 287. The bad news for the West Indies is that no team has made as much as 287 in the fourth innings at Sabina and won the match. Besides the 480/5 the Windies made in their first ever match at Sabina in 1930 in a tame draw, the highest they have made in the 4th innings is 258/9 in 1978. Worse still is the fact that the Windies were chasing 280 in 2005 against Pakistan and were bowled out for 143 and in 2006 they chased 269 against India and were bowled out for 219. You can see the list of 4th innings results at Sabina here.

Is 287 gettable? I think it is. It probably is about 40 or 50 runs more than I would have hoped for, but I think it is definitely gettable. A lot rests on the senior batsmen in the side, namely Chanderpaul, Sarwan and Bravo.

UPDATE: At stumps the Windies are 46/1 with Parchment falling for 15. The Windies will need 241 tomorrow with 9 wickets in hand. But for rain, we'll have a result tomorrow. The question is - can the Windies knock off these runs?