Smith shines through Windies gloom

Having endured the embarrassment of the home side’s tail plundering another 95 runs in reaching 435 in their first innings, the tourists were unsteadily placed at 182 for six at stumps on day two. Smith played the lone significant innings for the West Indies, his battling 88 occupying over four hours of skill, concentration and a little luck before Glenn McGrath deprived him of the chance at a second Test hundred just before the close. The 35-year-old pacer was at his most miserly and effective, removing Chris Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Marlon Samuels — all to catches by wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist — before dispatching Smith with a clever piece of bowling that lifted his tally of Test wickets against the West Indies to 101. The 24-year-old Grenadian failed to compensate for McGrath’s change of line to round the wicket and had his off-stump knocked back by a delivery speared into the left-hander, who opted not to offer a shot.   

Despite struggling against the wiles of leg-spinner Shane Warne, his effort deserved a hundred to follow an innings of 115 against the Queensland Bulls a week earlier at Allan Border Field. But the manner of his demise only reinforced McGrath’s status as the finest contemporary bowler of his type, the man from the New South Wales bush town of Narromine returning figures of four for 58 off 18 overs.

Warne was a persistent threat from the moment he came on, conceding just 43 runs from 20 overs for the vital wicket of Shivnarine Chanderpaul, the West Indies captain miscuing an attempted pull for the usually lumbering Nathan Bracken to take a stunning diving catch just inches from the turf at wide mid-on.

Yet, not for the first time, it was the wicket of Brian Lara that remained the major talking point at the end of a day that started with a half-an-hour delay caused by early-morning showers and ended when the stadium lights overpowered the rapidly fading natural light of the evening. Desperately keen to make an impact in what is expected to be his final Test series in Australia after a run of low scores Down Under, Lara played with all the care of a man intent on a substantial innings.

In hoisting Warne for a huge six over long-on, the left-handed maestro was on the verge of stepping up a gear when South African umpire Ian Howell harshly adjudged him LBW to a slower delivery from Brett Lee for 30, ending a 60-run third-wicket partnership with Smith.

The tear-away pacer was very lucky to claim the most coveted scalp of the West Indies batting line-up, but made his own good fortune in the shortened morning session, hammering wayward bowling in racing to 47.

It was an innings highlighted by a towering six off Daren Powell that sailed through the gap between the stands and the main scoreboard at midwicket before bouncing onto the adjacent nets. On the journey to its final resting place, the ball came within inches of injuring the daughter of former Queensland and Australian fast bowler Carl Rackemann, who was accompanying her father into the ground. With the second new ball in hand, Corey Collymore was accurate but unlucky while at the other end, Fidel Edwards deserved the treatment meted out to him by Lee and Warne in an eighth-wicket stand that realised 75 runs before Warne edged the first delivery of the day from Powell to wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin to depart for 47.

Bracken joined in the tail-end plunder with a quickfire 37, being caught behind off a Powell no-ball 13 runs earlier. The Jamaican eventually accounted for Lee via a mistimed pull to mid-on and Edwards ended an innings that never should have progressed beyond the first half-hour of the day as Bracken was taken by Sarwan at second slip in the second over after lunch.

With his feet apparently cemented into the crease, Gayle wafted at McGrath to give Australia the breakthrough at 20 for one at the start of the West Indies reply. Maintaining an obvious policy of full-blooded attack, Sarwan joined Smith in putting on 54 for the second wicket before McGrath drew him forward and Gilchrist celebrated his second catch in a row.

Lara’s duel with Warne was compelling cricket, and there were more than a few disappointed fans when Howell raised the index finger that left the former captain 286 runs short of becoming the highest run-scorer in Test cricket history. Chanderpaul’s quick entry and exit, followed almost as speedily by Samuels, reduced the West Indies to 161 for five.

Smith soldiered on at the other end, driving fluently through the off-side although he looked much more unsure against Warne, once narrowly surviving a stumping chance. When McGrath’s change of angle eventually got the better of him, he had batted for 247 minutes, faced 176 balls and struck ten fours.