All-rounders could hold key

WhEN the four selectors went into their huddle at Kensington Oval recently to choose the West Indies 14 for the forthcoming VB Series in Australia — always presuming, of course, that Dinanath Ramnarine lets them go —  they needed to be paying close attention to the simultaneous One-Day Internationals between Australia and New Zealand in Melbourne and Sydney. They would have especially noted the identity and style of the New Zealand bowlers who each time most effectively put the brakes on the rampant Australians.

They were Daniel Vettori, the left-arm spinner, and Scott Styris, the bustling medium-pacer, a hint that Ryan Hinds, Chris Gayle and Marlon Samuels, with their varied spin, and Wavell Hinds, with his slow-medium swing, could be the key men in similarly containing the Australians next month. They are all-rounders so their value is enhanced, especially as batting is their stronger suit. It was no wonder in the two practice matches during the week that Hinds bowled in both innings in one and his full quota of ten in another. Head coach Bennett King has already put him on notice that he is likely to be one of those closing off things at the end of the innings, presumably along with Gayle, the accomplished incumbent.       

Australia’s two ODIs against New Zealand were instructive. In both, Adam Gilchrist, as usual, took off like a Saturn rocket with Matthew Hayden and Ricky Ponting in his wake. He and Hayden put on 64 for the first wicket in 8.5 overs in the first match. In the second, they raised 86 in 12 overs. By the time Hayden was third out in the 25th over, Australia were 147 for three, galloping along at six runs an over. Yet they could only advance to 246 for nine from their 50 overs in the first and 261 for seven in the second. The reasons they stalled were Vettori and Styris. Vettori, the fifth bowler used each time, had figures of 10-1-31-3 and 10-1-36-1 to be “Man-of- the-Series.” Styris returned 9-0-35-0 and 10-0-37-1. The quicker trundlers presented a significant contrast.

Ian Butler, the fastest bowler at Stephen Fleming’s disposal in the continuing absence, through injury, of Shane Bond and Daryl Tuffey, was taken for 58 from eight overs in the first match and dropped. Jacob Oram, the giant fast-medium all-rounder, had 9-0-51-2 and 10-0-77-0 in the two matches. Another quick, Kyle Mills, was only given four opening overs in the first match, off which Gilchrist and Hayden plundered 28, although he came back better in the second at 10-0-49-2. King and his colleagues might even have rewound the tape to Australia’s defeat in the ICC Champions Trophy semifinal at Edgbaston in September, when England got their most telling service from the slower bowlers. Ashley Giles had 10-0-41-1 with his left-arm spin, captain Michael Vaughan 10-0-42-2 with his sporadic off-spin. The 30 overs of speed went at 5.6 runs an over.

The conclusions to be drawn from such evidence are straightforward enough but the Australians are not World Cup champions and the strongest team in both forms of the game for nothing. We can be sure that coach John Buchanan has been long since planning how to solder over such chinks in the otherwise impenetrable armour. Figures such as Vettori’s and Giles’ are not easily achieved against an order with the exciting Michael Clarke at No 7. But, in two of Australia’s last three matches in the abbreviated form of the game, England and New Zealand have proved they can be beaten, an assertion not so easily made in Test cricket. It is why the postponement of the West Indies’ series of four Tests from this season to next, to accommodate Australia’s October tour of India, has come as a blessing in disguise.

As the record proves, the West Indies are plainly better suited to the shorter game at present. They travel to Australia as holders of the Champions Trophy and, provided the unity and confidence so obvious during that campaign in England has not been crushed by the untimely public row between the board and the players’ association, can realistically expect to hold their own. For the moment, the attention is on the first engagement since the euphoria of the Oval in September and the impact of that triumph, and of the new coaching regime, on the team.

(Tony Cozier is the leading cricket writer and broadcaster in the West Indies).