Cricket: Caddick lifts his series chances: Accurate seam bowling lures Leewards' batsmen into indiscretions and indiscipline

Leeward Islands 181; England 19-0

THE fact that England have spent almost as much time clambering into their beachwear as their flannels so far on this tour is a central feature of Michael Atherton's reward for a job-well-done policy, and the impressive way they went about their business again here yesterday suggests that another day of sunbeds and banana daiquiris might be in order at the end of this game.

Bowling out the Leeward Islands for 181 would have been even more satisfying had half of the opposition team - or at least those that mattered - not been on the beach themselves yesterday. Richie Richardson, Curtly Ambrose, Keith Arthurton, and Winston and Kenneth Benjamin were all resting up for a more important fixture ahead (against Guyana in the Red Stripe Cup), which is pretty well how the counties play it nowadays when touring sides come to England.

There was also the minor proviso of West Indian batsmen, as is occasionally their custom, applying the Madame Whiplash school of discipline to the job in hand, but, to England's credit, this was often induced by tying them down for long periods with naggingly accurate bowling.

This perhaps applied a touch less to Ian Salisbury than the others, and his penchant for dishing up free hits for four rather too regularly makes him a luxury that England will almost certainly decide they cannot afford when the international matches come around.

Salisbury had an even more inviting surface yesterday than when he took seven wickets here in England's opening game. With the pitch taking spin from the first morning, it was not a good toss for Atherton to lose, but while Salisbury bowled well after an undistinguished first spell, it was the England seam attack that proved too much of a handful for batsmen not over-inclined towards hard graft.

The most impressive of all the England bowlers, not for the first time on tour, was Andrew Caddick, who took 3 for 62. He will be a hard man to leave out when the Test matches come around if he maintains his current form. In fact, unless the pitch is clearly one for the spinners in Jamaica, it is already odds-on a four-seamer attack, with Graeme Hick doing the twiddling if required.

There was a minute's silence before the start of play after the death of the former Windwards bowler, Wesley Thomas, but after that it was non-stop noise all day. Despite a crowd of not much more than 400 (and most of those were pink and imported), a pair of speakers presumably brought in by forklift truck belted out calypso music all day long.

This, happily, drowned out the work on a new stand which is scheduled to be ready in time for the fifth Test in April. Most of the tickets have been reserved by British travel agents, but it is rumoured that in Barbados and Antigua, some of these have also been sold locally. If so, a fair amount of chaos is in prospect.

Yesterday, though, there was room for around another 11,500 inside the ground, and the small pocket of spectators had little in the way of batting entertainment other than from a 24-year-old right-hander from Nevis by the name of Clifford Walwyn.

Walwyn's 65 in almost two and a quarter hours was a mixture of forward defensives and a ferocious lash at the ball, with not much in between. It was no surprise to find that he had learned his cricket on the beach, and one presumes that an outboard motor was occasionally required to fetch the ball back.

Had Walwyn been the sort to play himself back in after an interval, he might have made a century but, having thrashed the first ball after tea for four, his flashy drive at the next resulted in a snick to Jack Russell and the second of Caddick's three wickets.

Once Walwyn had gone, the Leewards disintegrated in a flurry of indiscipline, summed up by the dismissal of Ridley Jacobs. Having advanced down the pitch to clip a ball neatly to square leg, Jacobs was busy admiring the stroke when Matthew Maynard threw down the stumps and ran him out.

(First day of four: Leeward Islands won toss)

LEEWARD ISLANDS - First Innings

* S C Williams c Russell b Lewis. . . . . . . . .10

L A Harrigan c Atherton b Caddick. . . . . . . . .0

C W Walwyn c Russell b Caddick. . . . . . . . . .65

H W Williams c Lewis b Watkin. . . . . . . . . . 14

R D Jacobs run out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27

D R E Joseph st Russell b Salisbury. . . . . . . 18

H A G Anthony lbw b Salisbury. . . . . . . . . . .9

L C Weekes b Caddick. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

W D Phillip c Salisbury b Lewis. . . . . . . . . .9

V A Walsh not out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7

J C Maynard lbw b Lewis. . . . . . . . . . . . . .0

Extras (lb6 nb7). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13

Total. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .181

Fall: 1-3 2-28 3-70 4-119 5-124 6-145 7-158 8-160 9-181.

Bowling: Caddick 22-6-62-3; Watkin 16-7-33-1; Lewis 9.5-2-21-3; Salisbury 18-6-49-2; Hick 7-2-10-0.

ENGLAND - First Innings

* M A Atherton not out. . . . . . . . . . . . . .8

M R Ramprakash not out. . . . . . . . . . . . . .5

Extras (lb4 nb2). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

Total (for 0). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19

To bat: G P Thorpe, G A Hick, N Hussain, M P Maynard, R C Russell, C C Lewis, I D K Salisbury, A R Caddick, S L Watkin.

Umpires: P Whyte and J Stevens.

(Photograph omitted)