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Stuart Clark's
5-wkt haul destroys West Indies' dream |
Link to Scorecard
 A
clinical performance from the Australian bowlers
on the final day ensured a 95-run comfortable
victory for the visitors in the opening test at
Sabina Park. The up and down Kingston wicket was
tailor-made for the nagging accuracy of Stuart
Clark, who ripped apart the West Indian batting
line-up along with Brett Lee. Stuart Clark was
the Man of the Match for taking 8 for 91 in the
match.
The morning session was the critical one for
both the sides. The session would have given
clear indications mostly on which of the two
teams would go onto win the match. At the start
of play, the match was well balanced with
Windies at 46 for 1 and requiring another 241
for a win. The crowd at the Sabina Park were in
for a major disappointment in the first hour
itself as West Indies slipped to an
unrecoverable 82 for 6 in the 36th over of the
innings. Both Ramnaresh Sarwan and Shivnarine
Chanderpaul, the two dangerous players for the
Aussies were back in the pavilion cheaply. It
was a Clark-Lee show on a pitch that needed
plenty of application from the batsmen to
survive.
On either side of the morning session and the
afternoon session, there was a tiny fight put up
by Windies in form of Denesh Ramdin (36 from 61
balls with 5 fours) and Darren Sammy (35 from 80
balls with 6 fours). But it was only going to be
a 77-run stand that would delay the inevitable
by about 20 more overs. There was just a glimmer
of hope for West Indies to pull off a miracle
when these two hung in there for a considerable
amount of time. The end of this partnership came
when Ramdin got run out. There was a
contribution of 27 with 6 fours from Daren
Powell which reduced the margin of defeat to
under a hundred.
Leg Spinner Stuart Clark finished the match
taking the last two wickets which included an
umpiring blunder towards the end. Last man Amit
Jaggernauth was given out caught bat pad
although he never had hit the ball. West Indies
were all out for 191 in 67 overs with Stuart
Clark ending with mean figures of 20-8-32-5.
Brett Lee played his part with the wickets of
Morton and Chanderpaul.
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