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WI v Zim 2nd Test : Day 1

Thursday, November 13 2003

Just four days ago, the West Indies team was struggling to hang on for a pride-saving draw. The touring side was outplayed on all five days of the Test and it took a massive effort from Ridley Jacobs to stave off defeat. Now Lara's men have regrouped and will go down as having dominated at least one day of this deciding second Test.

At stumps, the West Indies stands at 282/3 - a very healthy position. Indeed, it was not the quantity of runs which were scored, it was the quality and aggression of compilation. It took just 63 overs - a run rate of 4.47, for those of you not mathematically inclined. The last 37 overs of play were prevented by afternoon showers.

Following his 29 and 1 in the last Test, Brian Charles Lara demonstrated a return to form as he stamped his authority on the Zimbabwean attack. The West Indies captain hit twelve (12) boundaries in his unbeaten innings of 77 off 93 balls. With him at stumps is his deputy, Ramnaresh Sarwan, who was almost caught at slip first ball and endured a rocky start to his innings. However, as in the past, batting with Lara buoyed his game and he was soon delighting the crowd and peppering the boundaries as well.

Before play, Lara won the toss and predictably elected to take first strike in perfect batting conditions. Immediately Chris Gayle and Wavell Hinds took to the bowling and compiled 73 runs between them before Gayle was out to a good delivery from Blignaut around the wicket. Gayle played for the angle in and found the ball straightening and taking a healthy edge to Taibu, gone for 47. Earlier Hinds reached his 2000th Test run when he was on 27.

This brought Ganga to the crease and he and Hinds continued to bat with confidence and style. At lunch, the total stood at 104/1 off 27 overs. Upon resumption, the runs began to flow once more. Ganga defended his first delivery and set off for a single only to be pleasantly surprised by an additional boundary of overthrows. The next ball, Wavell Hinds advanced down the track and smashed Price over for six to bring up his half-century. It was one of Hinds' pair of sixes in his innings.

Things were moving along nicely for the West Indies when, once again, the partnership was broken by a rash shot. Looking for a sweep off Price, Ganga skied a catch (which was taken on the second grab) to Matsikenyeri at deep square leg to be dismissed for 23 - 146/2. Two boundaries and 15 runs later, Hinds charged down his wicket unnecessarily and looked to launch Price out of the stratosphere. Needless to say, he missed and Taibu coolly collected the cherry and snapped off the bails to send the Jamaican opener back to the pavilion for 81 - 161/3.

At this point, it could have all fallen apart as the West Indies has shown time and time again that collapse isn't an alien concept. However, this time Lara was there with a distinct point to prove and a message to deliver. After Sarwan got over his early troubles, the rest of the day was a display of pure entertainment and he and Lara dealt with the home side options almost at will, compiling an as-yet-unbeaten partnership of 121 runs.

For Zimbabwe, Ray Price conceded 108 runs off his 23 overs but got a couple of wickets. Andy Blignaut was the only other wicket-taker with 1/50 from his 11 overs.

MATCH SUMMARY:

West Indies 1st innings 282/3 (63 overs)
(Wavell Hinds 81, Brian Lara 77 not out, Chris Gayle 47, Ramnaresh Sarwan 46 not out)
(Ray Price 2/108, Andy Blignaut 1/50.

Posted by Liam