Lee powers Australia to record Test victory

Australia completed an unprecedented 12th successive Test victory here yesterday with another mauling of the West Indies inside three days, by an innings and 27 runs.

Australia completed an unprecedented 12th successive Test victory here yesterday with another mauling of the West Indies inside three days, by an innings and 27 runs.

With another three Tests remaining in the series against outclassed and dispirited opponents, only an unlikely transformation in form - or the freak storms that have buffeted Sydney since the Olympics - can prevent Australia increasing the count to 15 before they leave for their next engagements, three Tests in India in February and March and the Ashes series in England in the summer.

Brett Lee, the fiery young fast bowler and Australia's latest blond pin-up boy now that Shane Warne has retired injured to the television commentary box, rounded things off in the grand manner, with three tail-end wickets in an over.

"Everyone is aware of what we can achieve," Steve Waugh, the triumphant captain who has led the Australians in all their 12 wins, said. "We're not going to take our foot off the accelerator. We want to keep improving."

They will have to do so temporarily without him. A strained muscle in the buttock - "a pain in the backside" as he put it - needs rest and has eliminated him from the third Test in Adelaide starting on 15 December. The vice-captain and wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist is likely to take over.

The result replicated Australia's similar innings win within three days in the first Test in Brisbane that equalled the standard set by the West Indies in 1984, when Clive Lloyd led arguably the most powerful team the game has known to three wins over Australia at home and three away and all five in England.

Waugh was realistic enough to acknowledge that it is "hard to judge how you're going" against the present West Indies team whose recent history, in its own way, is as staggering as Australia's - for very different reasons.

It was the West Indies' 15th defeat in their last 17 overseas Tests, dating back to the tour of Pakistan late in 1997. That, too, is unprecedented. The repeated slackness that has led West Indies' cricket to this sorry pass was on parade again yesterday.

Brian Lara and Wavell Hinds gifted their wickets with appalling cross-batted swings against Stuart MacGill's appreciable leg-breaks while the best partnership of the innings, 54 between Jimmy Adams and Ridley Jacobs that occupied an hour and 40 minutes after lunch, was ended by the shambolic run out of Jacobs.

When he came to the middle after three-quarters of an hour, Lara brought previous scores of 0, 4 and his first-ball duck of the first innings with him, all caused by Glenn McGrath who was immediately brought back to confront him.

He managed to survive five overs of McGrath but when MacGill reappeared for Gillespie, he essayed an expansive pull second ball to one far too close to him for the stroke. He missed and heard the rattle of broken stumps and falling bails behind him.

In timing and execution, Hinds' final stroke was even more unforgiveable. The tall left-hander had thumped six fours in 41, to add to his first-innings 50, when he chose the last over before lunch to try to dispatch MacGill into the nearby Swan River. His ungainly swipe missed and, like Lara, he was bowled.

Adams and wicketkeeper Jacobs were putting up a belated fight when Jacobs played Gillespie through midwicket. In turning for a second run, he slipped, recovered, almost collided with his partner and dived for his crease well short of MacGill's return to Gilchrist. It was pure slapstick.

After that, the end was near and Lee accelerated it with his final burst, leaving Adams unbeaten on 40 and pondering more difficult times ahead.

Third day; Australia won toss

WEST INDIES - First Innings 196 (W W Hinds 50, R D Jacobs 96no).

AUSTRALIA - First Innings 396 for 8 dec (M L Hayden 69, M E Waugh 119, A C Gilchrist 50).

WEST INDIES - Second Innings (Overnight: 16 for 2)

S L Campbell c Gillespie b Lee 4 D Ganga c Hayden b Gillespie 20 M Dillon c Gilchrist b McGrath 3 W W Hinds b MacGill 41 B C Lara b MacGill 17 *J C Adams not out 40 R R Sarwan c Gilchrist b Lee 1 ÿR D Jacobs run out 24 N A M McLean b Lee 11 M I Black b Lee 0 C A Walsh lbw b Lee 0 Extras (b1 nb3 lb8) 12 Total (66 overs) 173

Fall (cont): 3-42, 4-78, 5-95, 6-96, 7-150, 8-173, 9-173.

Bowling: McGrath 18-7-26-1 (nb1); Lee 15-2-61-5 (nb2); MacGill 17-6-37-2; Gillespie 12-4-26-1; Hayden 2-0-9-0, M Waugh 2-1-5-0.

AUSTRALIA WIN BY AN INNINGS AND 27 RUNS

Umpires: J H Hampshire (Eng) and P D Parker (Aus).

AUSTRALIA'S RECORD RUN

Australia broke the 16-year-old record of 11 consecutive Test wins held by the West Indies with victory in the second Test in Perth yesterday.

THE 12-TEST MATCH WINNING STREAK

Zimbabwe by 10 wickets (Harare, 14-17 October 1999) Pakistan by 10 wickets (Brisbane, 5-9 November 1999) Pakistan by four wickets (Hobart, 18-22 November 1999) Pakistan by innings and 20 runs (Perth, 26-28 November 1999) India by 285 runs (Adelaide, 10-14 December 1999) India by 180 runs (Melbourne, 26-39 December 1999) India by innings and 141 runs (Sydney, 2-4 January 200) New Zealand by 62 runs (Auckland, 11-15 March 2000) New Zealand by six wickets (Wellington, 24-27 March 2000) New Zealand by six wickets (Hamilton, 31 March-3 April 2000) West Indies by an innings and 126 runs (Brisbane, 23-25 November 2000) West Indies by an innings and 27 runs (Perth,1-3 December 2000)