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.

The Windies limited Australia to 226/7 after sending in the Aussies on a bouncy Kensington Oval pitch. Dwayne Bravo (3/48) and Jerome Taylor (2/44) shared most wickets as the Australian batsmen were peppered with quality fast bowling. Only Andrew Symonds (52) managed to add respectability to the Aussie total as the Aussies were reduced to 111/5.

However, the Aussies are only fortunate to be in the position they find themselves as Symonds for the second match in a row, was inexplicably given not out to a catch down the legside. As with the last test in Antigua, the ball clearly brushed his glove and the umpire refused to give him out. Symonds presumably is not a walker as it was quite obvious in both instances that he must have known that he should have been out. As with Antigua, the unlucky bowler was again Bravo. At the time Australia were 133/5 and Symonds' wicket would have been huge. As it is, the Windies will try to finish off the Australian tail early tomorrow. Brett Lee is at the crease so we should be treated to some fiery bouncers from Fidel Edwards tomorrow.

Stuart Clarke (4/22) and Brett Lee (2/56) have removed the Windies' middle order to leave the home team limping at 117/6 at lunch. Denesh Ramdin (22*) and Darren Sammy (13*) are the not out batsmen. With the West Indies needing another 170 runs with only 4 wickets in hand, barring a near-miracle, Australia are on the way to winning the first Test.

UPDATE: The Windies went down to defeat by 95 runs, having been bowled out for 191.

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?

The Windies shocked the visiting Aussies late in the day by taking 4 quick wickets to leave the Aussies reeling at 17/4 in their second innings. Earlier the Windies had battled to 312 due largely to a fantastic 118 by Shivnarine Chanderpaul a half century from Runako Morton 67 and a dashing 46 from Dwayne Bravo. Chanderpaul's innings provided the impetus for the fightback as he was hit on the back of his helmet by a Brett Lee bouncer, seemingly knocked out cold, only to get back up again and notch his 18th Test century.

Facing a deficit of 119 runs on first innings, Fidel Edwards and Daren Powell bowled with accurate pace and controlled aggression to slice off the Aussies' top order. Phil Jacques might as well been Failure Jacques today as Edwards had him caught behind for 4 following his first innings score of 9. Powell then took the big wicket of the captain Ricky Ponting when Ponting pushed uncertainly forward and gave a catch to the slips at 10-2. It was soon 12-3 when Simon Katich was trapped plum by a fast delivery from Edwards. It soon got worse for the Aussies as Mike Hussey was clean bowled at 12-4 by an excellent Daren Powell delivery. Panic must have ran through the Aussie dressing room as they sent in a night watchman in Mitchell Johnson. When the umpires offered the light at 17-4 the Aussie batsmen gladly accepted the offer.Read more