WI fight to avoid defeat

BRIDGETOWN: Half centuries from Chris Gayle and Ramnaresh Sarwan and an unbeaten 41 from captain Brian Lara yesterday led a battling West Indies effort to avoid defeat against Australia on the fourth day of their third cricket Test.

At the close, the home team was 187 for three after following on in their second innings, still 90 runs away from making Australia bat again. Opener Gayle hit 56 while Sarwan (58 not out) and Lara shared an unbroken 93-run fourth wicket partnership to lift West Indian hopes heading into the final day. The West Indies are staring at a third consecutive defeat; Australia lead the four-Test series 2-0. Lara, suffering from a high fever since his 34th birthday here on Friday, batted two and a half  hours, faced 122 balls and struck three fours. Sarwan smacked nine boundaries off 134 balls in just under four hours. Left-hander Lara came to the crease the second ball after tea once Gayle was stumped off leg-spinner Stuart MacGill. The Jamaican left-hander hit eight fours off 123 balls in registering his second 50 of the match.

Earlier, the West Indies stretched their first innings from overnight 291 for eight to 328 all out in reply to the Australians’ 605 for nine declared. Tino Best, on debut, scored a career-best First-Class score of 20 not out as he and Vasbert Drakes (11) added 33 for the ninth wicket. MacGill eventually ended the resistance by having Drakes caught at backward point off a sliced drive and last man Jermaine Lawson (1) stumped as he overbalanced. The leg-spinner ended with four for 107. Jason Gillespie earned three for 31 with his pace. Australian captain Steve Waugh enforced the follow on and fast bowler Brett Lee sliced through the top order after lunch. He dismissed Devon Smith (5) and Daren Ganga (6) cheaply to leave the West Indies tottering at 31 for two. Both were plainly leg before wicket to inswingers from the pacy Lee.

Gayle and Sarwan revived the innings with a stand of 63 for the third wicket before MacGill broke through in the final session with the crucial scalp of Gayle But Lara emerged and stalled the Australians’ progress along with his 22-year-old vice-captain. Sarwan benefited as Andy Bichel could not cling on to a return catch to his right. But both he and Lara batted with increasing authority on a pitch which remains slow and unresponsive and survived to the end with few alarms. Lee finished with two for 38 while MacGill took one for 39.