Kensington Oval, for so long the trusty bastion of West Indies cricket,yesterday experienced at first hand the harm and humiliation repeatedlyinflicted on West Indies cricket at other venues across the globe inrecent times
Tony Cozier23-Jun-2002Kensington Oval, for so long the trusty bastion of West Indies cricket,yesterday experienced at first hand the harm and humiliation repeatedlyinflicted on West Indies cricket at other venues across the globe inrecent times.This is the ground where they have been beaten in only three of the 38Tests since 1930 and where they trounced India by ten wickets just sixweeks ago.Yet the West Indies were as abysmal on the second day of the Cable &Wireless Tests against New Zealand as they have been in any of the 24defeats they have suffered in their last 27 Tests outside the Caribbean.Lacking the will, as much as the resources, to maintain the tight holdthey gained midway through Friday’s opening day, they allowed theirresilient opponents to transform 117 for five into 337 before they couldcomplete the job 20 minutes after lunch yesterday.They then collapsed through a succession of reckless, unpardonablestrokes to 107 all out, their lowest total at Kensington since Englandbowled them out for 102 on an uncovered, rain-affected pitch in 1935.Pedro Collins removed opener Mark Richardson to a first slip catch withthe last ball of the first of seven overs at the end of the day when NewZealand predictably chose to spurn the follow-on, in spite of a lead of230. But it was scant consolation.Three days remain and there has been nothing, in either a slow pitch ofvariable but not unmanageable bounce or the divergent approaches of theteams, to remotely suggest New Zealand can be prevented from recordingthe victory in the Caribbean that eluded them for 11 Tests and threeprevious tours.Their position was established by the common sense, team work andpurpose that explain their No.3 rating in the current ICC Testchampionship standings.They are attributes the West Indies appeared to have finally acquiredduring their 2-1 series triumph over India earlier in the season butthey have vanished into thin air in the space of a day and a half.Thin air was where most of their unthinking batsmen chose to hit theball, seemingly for the New Zealanders to confirm their status as one ofthe game’s finest fielding teams.They paid no heed to how their opponents had diligently rebuilt theirinnings by grafting for runs on a pitch of sluggish pace and variablebounce.It was a recovery built around captain Stephen Fleming’s quality 130 onFriday but would not have been possible without wicket-keeper RobbieHart’s unwavering adherence to the basics that occupied five hours, 20minutes and 220 balls for his unbeaten 57.Even No.8 Daryl Tuffey’s defiance for an hour-and-a-half for 28 whileadding 53 with Hart should have been a clue to even a schoolboycricketer as to what was required.Yet those for whom the game is a richly rewarded profession once morefailed to appreciate their responsibility to their team and theirpublic.Eight batsmen were out to catches in the field four in the deep, fourcloser to the bat. All were attempting big shots. It was out and outfolly.The West Indies were instantly and initially unsettled by the raw paceof the 27-year-old Bond Shane Bond.After impressing Australians, who are grudging in their praise, notleast for their neighbours across the Tasman Sea, on his first tour latelast year, Bond’s reputation preceded him to the Caribbean.His first ball proved it was not misplaced. It passed Chris Gayleoutside off-stump before he could raise his bat and immediately shook apreviously somnolent crowd of around 5 000 into the animated buzz thatall genuine fast bowlers generate.Bond was consistently clocked at over 90 miles an hour on TWITelevision’s speedgun and once touched 93.1. It was the kind of pacethat was once the West Indies’ preserve, several times over.Unlike the slower modern West Indian, Bond backed it up with control andwas soon on a hat-trick.Gayle’s feet were as heavy as a Mafia victim’s as he tamely drove thefirst ball of Bond’s third over into wide cover’s lap.Ramnaresh Sarwan, who filled the breach, apparently learnt nothing fromthe day-and-a-half he spent in the field observing the New Zealanders’batting. If he had he couldn’t have attempted an expansive pull off hisfirst ball.It was fractionally short and faster than any Sarwan has encounteredsince Brett Lee in Australia a year-and-a-half ago. It predictably foundhigh on the bat and travelled limply to mid-on where Ian Butler dived tohis right to catch it.So Brian Lara had to enter at six for two, a situation to take his mindback to his prolific series in Sri Lanka late last year. From the start,he shaped better than he has done at any time since then.What he made of what he saw from his colleagues at the opposite end canonly be guessed at.Wavell Hinds swatted at a bouncer from the towering Tuffey and shook hishead in wonder at his folly as it skewed from the splice and skied nomore than ten yards away into the waiting hands of gully.But the sequence of suicide strokemakers was not at an end.As soon as Butler, sharp if not as rapid, took over from Bond, captainCarl Hooper chose the hook as his best option for the first bouncer thatcame along. Tuffey, situated at long-leg between the Inniss and HewittStands, safely gathered the resulting catch.Hopes of a recovery from 47 for four rested fairly and squarely on theleft-handed batting of Lara, by now into his stride, and ShivnarineChanderpaul, the form batsmen of the season.They went into tea unbeaten but a long scoreless period, against Butlerand the tall left-arm spinner Daniel Vettori, in which he was kept on 28for 25 balls, built the pressure on Lara.When captain Fleming brought cover into silly point and Vettori droppedthe next ball short, Lara saw his chance to go through the consequentopening.He cut hard against the turn, out of the bowler’s footmarks, but justdragged the ball back into his leg-stump from the inside-edge.He had played without problem for nearly an hour-and-a-half and the NewZealanders knew they had removed their main stumbling block.Chanderpaul was the other but, by then, the epidemic had spread throughthe dressing room and he could find no one to stay with him.Ridley Jacobs swung a high catch to mid-wicket off the top edge, Collinsturned Butler round the corner where Vincent lept to claim the catch andAdam Sanford touched Butler to the keeper.It was all over when Powell and Merv Dillon, in at No.11 where he beganhis career, were out to top-edged sweeps from Vettori.The swift demise was in stark contrast to the purposeful progress of theNew Zealand innings from its overnight 257 for six.The West Indies could only find one wicket in the first session as Hartand Tuffey did the simple things simply.The only success was the left-handed Vettori for 39. He cut four moreboundaries to add to the four he had at the start but then clippedCollins off the legs to square-leg.They had to wait another hour-and-a-half before they dislodged Tuffey,lbw for Powell’s first Test wicket.Bond followed right away, bowled middle stump off the inside edge, andButler was last man out, stranded in mid-pitch in confused calling withHart. But, by then, their main task was bowling, not batting, and theyreturned to do it well.