Australia poised after Waugh power

CRICKET

One of the proudest and most enduring records in Test cricket hangs by the slenderest of threads this morning.

Thoroughly outplayed over the first three days by a committed Australia team, the West Indies tomorrow resume the decisive fourth and final Test after the rest day depending on the last seven wickets of their unreliable batting to save them from defeat and their first loss in a Test series since 1980.

Cricket may be a game of uncertainties but it is an unrealistic, virtually hopeless, expectation starting their second innings late yesterday after Australia had accumulated an overwhelming lead of 266, they lost their captain and most experienced batsman Richie Richardson, their left-handed champion Brian Lara and the struggling opener Stuart Williams, all to the persistent Paul Reiffel in the final 14 overs while scoring 63.

Their fate had been virtually sealed when they failed to capitalise on batting first on an ideal pitch and were bowled out for 264 and the Waugh twins, Mark and Steve, consolidated Australia's immediate advantage with their fourth wicket partnership of 231 on the second.

Making up for past indignities inflicted by a collection of West Indies fast bowlers, Steve turned the screws yesterday, converting his overnight 110 into an even 200. It was his first double in his 76 Tests and the first against the West Indies since another Australia Dean Jones, watching here as a television commentator made 216 at Adelaide in the 1988-89 series.

In ensured that the West Indies batting, which has only managed a highest score of 265 in the series, would be under enormous pressure. So it proved. Richardson drove a return catch in Reiffel's fourth over, Lara was given lbw on the back foot by South African umpire Karl Liebenberg in his fifth and the flat-footed Williams dragged the ball back into his stumps in his sixth.

Steve Waugh's experiences against the West Indies prior to this series have not been enjoyable. In 12 previous Tests he averages 31.11 against them compared with an overall 44.57. But he is a gritty fighter, even if his continuing problems against the bodyline attack at which the West Indians are so efficient prompt a proliferation of bouncers. He had been missed by the new wicketkeeper Courtney Browne off Kenny Benjamin when 42 but offered no further hope to West Indian bowling that was as flat as the pitch.

Neither Curtly Ambrose nor Courtney Walsh could find the hostility that reduced Australia to 73 for 3 on the opening day and brought the Waughs together. Steve and his young partner, Greg Blewett , comfortably saw off thet second new ball, immediately taken by Richardson and added 113 before Blewett fell to a long hop to the second ball from the occasional slow left armer Keith Arthurton.

By then he had stroked nine confident and attractive boundaries, mainly pulls and cover drives, and had further established Australian superiority.

Steve Waugh lost Ian Healy and Brendon Julien cheaply to sharp close catches between intervals but Reiffel, later to return with such effect put on a further 73 with him.

However when the ninth wicket fell Waugh was still five away from his landmark 200. The last man Glenn McGrath stayed with him long enough for him to reach it before, finally, a bouncer did end his innings.

(Third day: West Indies won toss)

WEST INDIES - First Innings 265 (R B Richardson 100; B C Lara 65)

AUSTRALIA - First Innings

(Overnight: 321 for 4)

S R Waugh c Lara b K Benjamin 200

G S Blewett c W Benjamin b Arthurton 69

I A Healy c Lara b W Benjamin 6

B P Julien c Adams b Walsh 8

P R Reiffel b K Benjamin 23

S R Warne c Lara b K Benjamin 0

G D McGrath not out 3

Extras (b11 lb6 w1 nb26) 44

Total 531

Fall: 5-417 6-433 7-449 8-523 9-523.

Bowling: Ambrose 21-4-76-1 (8nb), Walsh 33-6-103-3 (3nb, 1w), K Benjamin 23.5-0-106-3 (13nb), W Benjamin 24-3-80-1, Hooper 43-9-94-1, Adams 11- 0-38-0 (2nb), Arthurton 5-1-17-1.

.WEST INDIES - Second Innings

S C Williams b Reiffel 20

R B Richardson c and b Reiffel 14

B C Lara lbw b Reiffel 0

J C Adams not out 13

W K M Benjamin not out 1

Extras (b8, lb 7 15

Total (for 3) 63

Fall: 1-37 2-37 3-46

Rampant Gough, Scoreboard, page 31