Rain short-circuits Lara, Windies

BULAWAYO: Rain brought an early end to what was slowly turning into the Brian Lara roadshow on the opening day of the second cricket Test between West Indies and Zimbabwe yesterday.

When afternoon showers swept across the ground about half-hour after tea, West Indies were 282 for three in their first innings with Lara undefeated on 77 and Ramnaresh Sarwan unbeaten on 46. Play never resumed. Lara, the West Indies captain, and Sarwan, the vice-captain, have shared 121 runs, unbroken, for the fourth wicket to give West Indies complete control, after left-arm spin bowler Raymond Price captured the wickets of Daren Ganga and Wavell Hinds after lunch to bring Zimbabwe back into the match. For the umpteenth time in his Test career, Hinds literally threw his wicket away. He was in full cry on 81 when Price foxed him with a well-flighted delivery. At least, he had the satisfaction of passing 2,000 Test runs and shared successive half-century stands with fellow opening batsman Chris Gayle and Ganga.

Neither Lara nor Sarwan were fluent when they started. Gradually they found their range and the ball began disappearing to the boundary quite regularly. Lara has so far struck a dozen boundaries and all but 14 of Sarwan’s runs were in fours. In the last of Blessing Mahwire’s ten overs, Lara smote three fours, two with his trademark cover drive in the arc between backward point and cover and the other, a crunching pull through mid-wicket. Sarwan was not so devastating. Encouraged by Lara through his trials with Price, he played a couple rasping cuts through cover off Price which had a certain mark of class about them and signalled he was coming into his own. Not for the first time on a road trip, West Indies started the match under pressure to deliver much more than promises after they stumbled through the first Test at Harare and narrowly escaped defeat.

Choosing to bat on a hard, easy-paced Queens Sports Club pitch in hot, sunny weather, West Indies profited from an opening stand of 73 between Hinds and Gayle. They too, showed nerves early on, but started to flow and Zimbabwe’s bowlers were put on the defensive. They were just getting wound up when Gayle, cramped for room outside the off-stump, tried to force a short-of-a-length delivery from Andy Blignaut through the off-side and was caught behind for 47. Hinds and Ganga carried West Indies to lunch at 104 for one and were progressing nicely with the occasional scare along the way when Ganga for no apparent reason tried to clear Stuart Matsi-kenyeri on the deep mid wicket boundary with a delivery from Price to be out — caught for 23 to leave West Indies 146 for two.

Lara entered to little fanfare, but his demeanour suggested big plans. At the other end, Hinds had carted Price for a huge six over long-on and was just getting the measure of him when he charged down the pitch and wildly swung at a well-flighted ball that spun back between his bat and pad for ’keeper Tatenda Taibu to stump him. Hinds batted close to two  hours, faced 109 balls to strike a dozen fours and two sixes to lift Zimbabwean spirits. Their optimism was shortlived however. The bowling of Price, in particular, and Streak did offer a bit of a challenge, but Lara took centre stage and Sarwan followed closely behind. They were on the way to erasing memories of the side’s inept batting in the first Test when the rain that allowed only seven overs in the evening period spared the Zimbabwean bowlers and offered them the sanctity of the changing rooms.