Story A West Indian Dream. 1st Test Match, Close of play, Day 1

[Shaun Tait]

Wow cant wait to read more

 

[Pakistani Army]

Frank Worrell Trophy
1st Test Match, 10:30am
LIVE! From Brisbane "The Gabba" Cricket Ground​

Pre-Session chat​

(With Ian Healy, Michael Slater & Jeffery Dujon)​

I.Healy: Good morning and welcome to Brisbane Cricket Ground, more commonly known as "The Gabba" for the opening day of the first test match of the Frank Worrell Trophy between Australia and West Indies. The Australians will want to get their summer off to a winning start whereas the West Indies will be expecting their big guns to fire in this opening test match. Alongside me is Michael Slats "Slats" aswell as West Indian Wicketkeeper Jeffery Dujon. First off, good morning to both of you.

M.Slater: Good morning Heals and Jeffery. It sure is great to be back for yet another Australian cricketing summer starting with today's test match against the West Indies. The West Indians should not be underestimated as they do have some big, key players in the captain Chris Gayle aswell as Ramnaresh Sarwan and Shiv Chanderpaul.

I.Healy: That is true. There has been a lot of talk about Chris Gayle's place in the squad as there are a few persons stating that he is "T20 & ODI" material. What is your view on Gayle's place in the squad Jeffery?

J.Dujon: Well it is a tough question to be honest. He is one of the more experienced players alongside Ramnaresh Sarwan and Shivnarine Chanderpaul. Gayle did prove he is worthy of captaining a side in this year's ICC World Twenty20 tournament in England where he led a relatively young side to the Semi-Finals which I thought was a remarkable effort.

I.Healy: So you see him in the squad just due to the West Indians needing a captain?

J.Dujon: Well no I mean he gives it a "whack" even in Test matches and I feel this approach should be scrapped for this form of the game. The WICB decided to include him mainly as a captain in order to guide the youngsters such as Shane Shillingford & Kemar Roach for example. It is true he does have some critics, however he will have to answer to them in this tough tour of Australia.

I.Healy: Ok. Now you will probably wondering where Mark Nicholas is. We will now join him for the pitch report.

Pitch Report with Mark Nicholas

M.Nicholas: Thanks Ian. A first gilmpse of the pitch from a distant confirmed my suspicions. The wicket is Hard which is most likely due to the constant 35 degrees tempatures over the past week. The wicket to be honest should favour the batsman early on in the opening couple of days. However, once the rough patches start to appear, then it is highly likely that the spinners will take over with lift, bounce and spin coming into play in the following days. On this opening day, the batsman should find it easy to counteract the swinging ball. The bowlers MUST bend their back in the early part of the day and bang the ball in hard as this way there will be seam movement aswell as some indifferent bounce available. Personally, if I won the toss, I would without hesitation bat first.

I.Healy: Thanks Mark for that pitch report. Well during Mark's pitch report, we managed to get hold of the starting XI's for this first test. They are as follows.

Australia Line-up​

West Indies Line-Up​

I.Healy: Firstly lets analyze the Australian line-up starting with you Slats. Do you think it has been a correct decision to give Philip Hughes yet another chance at the expense of Shane Watson batting all the way down at number eight?

M.Slater: To be honest with you, no. Shane Watson has been batting exceptionally well opening the batting so I see no need in bringing another opening combination.

I.Healy: So does this mean that Australia will use him primarily as a bowler in this test match?

M.Slater: At the expense of Philip Hughes, Australia will definatly keep him as the fourth seamer. So in this test match, I feel he is going to be used primarily as a bowler to add to the seam department.

I.Healy: Jeffery, what are your thoughts on the West Indian starting line-up?

J.Dujon: On paper, I can say that is a relatively strong team. However, the proof is in the pudding. I feel that the inclusion of debutant Shane Shillingford is a good one as it will let Sulieman Benn focus more on the shorter format of the game. Shillingford has got his chance after a string of good performances with the ball aswell as some late lower-order hitting with the bat for the West Indies A tour of Pakistan. It will be a test for the young lad aswell as a learning curve. We will have to see how he fairs.

I.Healy: Gentleman, thank you for your time. The latest news from the middle is that West Indies captain Chris Gayle has won the toss and has elected to bat first. We will take a short break and upon returning, we should be all set for the opening ball of this first test match. LIVE! Only on Channel Nine.

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West Indies:- 0/0 (0 Overs), 10:55am

West Indies have won the toss and elected to bat first.

 

[Pakistani Army]

Frank Worrell Trophy
1st Test Match, 12:00pm
LIVE! From Brisbane "The Gabba" Cricket Ground​

Australians land an early blow
(Chanderpaul sent back to the pavilion)​

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The "Gabba" was slowly filling up with persons awaiting the start of yet another Australian Summer. West Indies captain Chris Gayle won the toss and elected to bat first on a hard wicket. The West Indies openers, captain Chris Gayle was accompanied by Shivnarine Chanderpaul who is fairly inexperienced opening the batting in test matches having previously opened in only four test matches. Both openers strode out to the middle as the constant trickle of crowd-flow continued.

Captain Chris Gayle took the strike at the strikers' end, whilst Ben Hilfenhaus was given the new ball. Australian captain Ricky Ponting had explained thoroughly a strategy for Gayle which was to bowl outside his off-stump as Hilfenhaus was being aided by some in-swing into Gayle. Suprisingly, Gayle was leaving everything given to him by Hilfenhaus outside his off-stump. However, when Ryan Harris came on at the opposite end, he was also attaining in-swing into Gayle aswell as extracting a lot of bounce off the wicket.

Meanwhile, Shiv Chanderpaul was playing his leisurly innings at his typically par speed. Chanderpaul had attempted to cut Hilfenhaus on two seperate occasions as the pitch was offering extra bounce to the seamers aswell as a bit of extra pace. Chanderpaul did pounce on the back of a length ball by Ben Hilfenhaus very quickly as he punched it through the off-side for his aswell as West Indies' first boundaey of this test match.

Gayle was continuing to struggle with the movement of Hilfenhaus' deliveries. Hilfenhaus did however deserve a wicket and that too of the West Indian captain, Chris Gayle.

Hilfenhaus banged the ball in very short aiming for Gayle's ribcage region. However, the ball shot up quickly off the surface which startled Gayle as he was in position for a booming Pull and thus, took his eyes off the ball at the final moment. This caused an inside edge which rikashayed off Gayle's shoulder and over the slip region. Hilfenhaus was visibily annoyed as were the two slip fielders and Ricky Ponting at Point. This brought up Gayle's opening boundary, in highly unorthodox fashion.

Gayle's near miss obviously frustrated the Australians. As a result, Ponting adjusted his field by placing himself at a close cover region. Directly in the firing line if Gayle was to bludgen a boundary. Gayle however had other plans and saw this as a gap in the field. As Hilfenhaus overpitched outside Gayle's off-stump, he cracked the ball in the air into Ponting's path. It was a shame that the ball was a couple of feet over Ponting by the time he got the dive in.

Hilfenhaus started his fourth over, continuing from the same end. His first ball was a peach of a delivery which pitched and beat Gayle's bat who was eying another cover drive.

This is where the tensions boiled over as Hilfenhaus started the "minor chat." Gayle did also reply, in visual form in the form of a deep-eyed glare. In addition, wicketkeeper Brad Haddin could be heard over the stump microphone dishing out words to the West Indian captain before heading back to his place behind the stumps.

At the other end, the Australians did eventually get their breakthrough. Unfortunatly for them it was not the West Indian captain they were seeing the back of, but a bigger scalp in Shivnarine Chanderpaul heading back into the pavilion.

Ryan Harris had been bowling a probling line outside off-stump aswell as also firing in a straighter, more quicker one. It was the quicker one that caught Chanderpaul. Out of nowhere, Harris pitched the ball on a length as the ball skidded towards Chanderpaul who was looking to work the ball onto the legside. As the ball crashed into Chanderpaul's pads, he knew he was out immediatly and thus did not review his decision as Billy Doctrove had no hesitation in raising the finger for the Australians' first wicket as Chanderpaul departed for a lesiurely 11.

Chanderpaul's departure brought in more experience as Ramnaresh Sarwan arrived at the wicket. Gayle explained thoroughly that there would be additional bounce, especially from Ryan Harris who was bowling emaculatly. His counterpart Ben Hilfenhaus was bowling waywardly yet at times was bowling some great deliveries worth applauding.

In a shock move, Ricky Ponting brought on part-timer Marcus North in only the ninth over of the West Indies' innings. This was a tactical move as Gayle was looking to go big. The field was spread out. The plan was for Gayle to get a single and bring Ramnaresh Sarwan on strike.

Instead, Gayle had other plans. He drilled Marcus North's two fullish, flighted deliveries down the ground and through the covers which did release some of the early pressure that was applied by Hilfenhaus and Harris. Ponting knew that the gamble had not paid off.

Ryan Harris continued from the opposite end into his seventh over conceeding just 11 runs. As previously stated, he was attaining extra lift with help from the wicket. It was Harris who caused Ramnaresh Sarwan to panic.

Sarwan had counter-acted the extra lift by staying back in the crease. However, on two occasions in the over he was beaten by the extra pace of Harris. The final ball of the over was a controversial one. Harris banged the ball in short attempting to get the ball at head height. He was sucessful in that as Sarwan jumped with two feet off the floor in order to keep the ball down. Instead, the ball rikashayed off Sarwan's Wrist or Forearm and high over into second slip where Shane Watson took a magnificant, leaping catch.

The Australians celebrated immediatly as they knew that Harris had got the breakthrough. Umpire Aleem Dar confirmed this by raising his finger, much to the Australians joy. However, Sarwan who was in some discomfort had a breif chat with captain Gayle and illustrated the "T" sign with his arms to the umpire calling for the referral. The Australians were all smiles knowing that this would be given out. In real-time it did look out. While the decision was pending, the West Indies team's physiotherapist or "physio" sprinted onto the field accompanied by Sulieman Benn carrying drinks of Gatorade aswell as two towels.

What will the referral bring? Another wicket to the Australians, or a chance for Ramnaresh Sarwan. Stay tuned to Channel Nine!

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12:00pm, Day 1

West Indies: 55/1 (13 Overs)
*C Gayle 33(38) 6 Fours
*R Sarwan 4(9) 1 Four

Last Wicket
S Chanderpaul LBW b. R Harris 11(31) 1 Four

B Hilfenhaus 5-1-23-0
R Harris 7-3-15-1
M North 1-0-10-0

Sarwan referral decision pending!

 

[Pakistani Army]

Frank Worrell Trophy
1st Test Match, 12:00pm
LIVE! From Brisbane "The Gabba" Cricket Ground​

Sarwan's decision reversed
(However, Aussies get West Indian captain)​

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As Ramnaresh Sarwan was being treated by the physiotherapist on the field for the pain he was feeling, third umpire Rudi Koertzen was scanning through numerous replays of Sarwan's decision which was referred. Despite numerous views, a decision had not been confirmed yet and thus the Australian fans started to get impatient and started a chant of "Boo"'s which were echoed throughout the ground.

These chants were fueled with more fire as Rudi Koertzen overturned the decision and gave the decision not out. The replays clearly showed that the ball had strook Sarwan on the wrist, so why was the decision overturned? Australia captain Ricky Ponting immediatly showed his anger to umpire Aleem Dar who could do little to nothing and told Ponting to take his position in the field and resume play.

Despite the decision being overturned, play continued as Chris Gayle continued on his merry way by continuing to slot the bad balls away to the fence whilst playing conservatively to the balls on a good length. Gayle's partner at the other end, Sarwan was playing a very conservative innings. It was obvious that he was in some discomfort when playing some shots and this seemed to have a dampeneing effect on Sarwan as he was being beaten by the bat on numerous occasions by both Hilfenhaus and a tiring Ryan Harris who had bowled wonderfully well on his Test debut.

Despite this, it was Ben Hilfenhaus who ended Gayle's two-halved innings. The captain had done all the hard work of surviving an early "half-chance" , getting himself in aswell as coming up against a barage of Australian sledging. Hilfenhaus had been inconsistent with his line and length early on. However, the ball that brought the end of Gayle's innings ruled out any doubt that Hilfenhaus had been bowling inconsistently.

Hilfenhaus bowled the ball of a fairly full length to which Gayle immediatly widened his eyes in hope for another glance into the leg-side. However, upon pitching, the ball straightened. Gayle was expecting an inswinger upon pitching. Due to this, he had a fairly big gap between bat and pad. Hilfenhaus and the slup cordon immediatly shot up for the appeal. It did not take long for umpire Aleem Dar to raise the finger. The Australians celebrated once again and knew that even if the West Indians reviewed the decision it would not save the West Indian captain as he decided against referring the decision.

This ended Gayle's fairly "typical" knock as he had played fairly well to get to the fourties. Sadly, Hilfenhaus found a way through him as Narsingh Deonarine strode out to bat at number four. With there still being another 42 minutes of play left before the Lunch interval, the Australians aswell as captain Ricky Ponting were in hope for another wicket. Their claim could be well backed up as Sarwan was feeling fairly uneasy with his wrist as he was on 5 runs off 26 balls when Gayle departed.

Knowing he was settled in, it was Sarwan who then took control of proceedings towards the Lunch interval. Ryan Harris into his eleventh over was tiring. Despite this, he produced two superb balls that nearly saw Narsingh Deonarine back to the pavilion with the first being a full in-swinging yorker which was dug out of the rough just in the nick of time by Deonarine. The following ball was an outswinger which moved away late from the nat of Deonarine. Despite this, Harris' following over was where an uneasy Sarwan took control.

The opening ball was a legside fulltoss which Sarwan flicked away to fine-leg. Due to Harris' pace, the ball flew past Mitchell Johnson at fine-leg. The following ball was an overpitched delivery on middle stump which Sarwan elegantly stroked past Harris. The relatively quick Brisbane outfield did the rest. The next ball was greeted by yet another boundary as again Harris overpitched, this time outside off-stump. This really brought the pressure off Sarwan as Harris kicked the dirt in anguish as he had bowled his heart out in this morning session. Ricky Ponting saw this and gave Harris a well earned break as he was replaced by Mitchell Johnson.

The final over was to be bowled by Marcus North. His last two overs had only conceded three runs despite there being limited turn available for him. Despite a huge Deonarine six over square leg, which landed four rows back into the Brisbane stands, the rest of the over was uneventful as Sarwan and Deonarine left the field accompanied by the Australian players and Aleem Dar & Billy Doctrove.

The opening session of this first test match had swing both ways. However, I feel that the West Indies have just snook infront and won the opening session despite the Australians picking up two key wickets.

West Indies Batting Card

Australia Bowling Card

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West Indies: 105/2 (26 Overs)
*R Sarwan 26(43) 4 Fours, 1 Six
*N Deonarine 10(27) 1 Four, 1 Six

Last Wicket
C Gayle LBW b. B Hilfenhaus 46(55)

B Hilfenhaus 9-1-36-1
R Harris 12-5-38-1
M North 4-0-19-0
M Johnson 1-0-1-0

Day One, 1:10pm
Lunch Interval: 1:10-1:40pm
Play will resume at 1:40pm

 

[Dutchmen]

Sarwan was little bit luckily in the field. Gayle should have scored 50, but he didn't. And IMO, it's good start for the Indies.

 

[Aditya]

Sarwan and Deonarine need to build a partnership here. Nash and Bravo are still left to bat and we all know that both of them have capability of playing big innings. Ramdin is a good batsman and can score some runs as well so still plenty of batting left for West Indies. Australian bowlers bowled well to take 2 wickets of West Indies team till lunch. Especially the wicket of Gayle was a really important one for Australia.

Fantastic presentation Arslaan.

 

[Pakistani Army]

Frank Worrell Trophy
1st Test Match, 3:40pm
LIVE! From Brisbane "The Gabba" Cricket Ground​

Australians strike back
(Sarwan & Deonarine play suicidal shots under pressure)​

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The players were ready to resume play after a fairly short thirty minute interval. The West Indies had played along nicely to get along to 105/2 with vice-captain Ramnaresh Sarwan and Narsingh Deonarine playing nicely on 26 and 10 respectively.

Australia captain Ricky Ponting passed the ball to Mitchell Johnson who had bowled one over prior to the lunch interval and only conceeding one run. As Aleem Dar and Billy Doctrove were ready, Mitchell Johnson resumed play after the lunch break. At the other end, Ponting brought on Marcus North on for a second spell with his opening spell conceeding 19 runs in his 4 overs. It appeared that the West Indian batsman were struggling with their footwork and thus Johnson beat the edge of the bat on numerous occasions. Johnson was doing his bit, by bowling on a length and thus Sarwan and Deonarine's footwork was getting patchy.

In addition, Marcus North was finally starting to extract some turn out of the wicket. The spin was causing the odd problem for both the batsman as to Sarwan, North was pitching the ball outside off-stump and bringing the ball in. Seeing this, Ponting brought Simon Katich into the Short Leg position without a helmet! This tactic nearly got the key wicket of Sarwan as a bat-pad appeal to Katich was turned down, much to the dissapointment of the Australians on the field.

Johnson only bowled two overs after the lunch interval before Ponting brought on Shane Watson into the attack. Watson was putting full effort into his deliveries as by bending their backs, the Australian bowlers had figured out that movement aswell as variable bounce was on offer. It did not take long for Watson to utilize this.

On one particular ball, Watson pitched the ball up as before on a good length. Seeing this, Deonarine was expecting the ball to rise steadily onto the bat. However, the ball zipped off the surface at a rate of knots and turned into an unexpected bouncer for which Wicketkeeper Brad Haddin had to jump off the ground, strect upwards and collect the ball. Deonarine immediatly started leveling the turf on where the ball had pitched, whereas Watson had a cunning grin upon his face as he turned back towards his mark.

Here is Channel Nine's "Dartfish" with the line in ball being the path of the previous ball. As expected there was little indifferent bounce. However, the red line representing the following ball does show a huge difference in trajectories. The non-striker Sarwan strolled down the track and had a breif chat with Deonarine regarding the bounce. However, the variable bounce, accompanied by the canny part-time spinners of Marcus North were causing an dampening effect on both the batsman out in the middle, despite the partnership being past fifty.

It took a total of seven overs for a boundary to occur after lunch as Sarwan elegently cut North away towards the fence. This was to be a rare confidence booster for the West Indians in this session as both Watson and North were not giving anything away to the batsman.

Seeing North was tiring, captain Ponting replaced him with another part-timer in Simon Katich. It was Katich who broke the Deonarine-Sarwan partnership. As the pressure was being applied by the Australian bowlers, both Deonarine and Sarwan needed to break the shakles as Ponting had set a field where singles were not on offer. Despite Katich's opening over containing a bix six off Deonarine, Katich got the final laugh although it has to be said that it was not his best ball to date.

Katich started his second over with a single taken by Deonarine thus getting Sarwan on strike. Katich had previously over-pitched to Deonarine and had been smashed a couple of rows back into the stands. However, the second time Katich over-pitched, it yielded the Australians a wicket and that too of Ramnaresh Sarwan who had played fairly nicely to get to 40. The ball to get Sarwan was nothing special, although the finger can be pointed solely to Sarwan for his downfall. Katich again over-pitched however this time it turned into a full toss. Initiating this, Sarwan had already advanced down the track. Michael Hussey at Short Leg had already started to take avasive action as it was looking likely that Sarwan would be hitting another maximum. However, somehow there was a big gap left between the bat and the ball. This caused Sarwan to miss the ball completely and thus, the ball rattled into the stumps.

Sarwan could not believe his dismissal as he cursed himself under his breath. Katich could also not believe what had happened as he was in the center of the Australian celebrations as the 74 run stand between Sarwan and Deonarine had been broken in unorthodox fashion as the next batsman Brendon Nash strode out into the middle.

Nash to was finding scoring a tricky ask as Ponting brought more men close in for North. At the other end, Deonarine too was failing in his attempts to rotate the strike. This caused a build up of pressure as Simon Katich completed his first maiden.

This pressure again caused a set batsman to lose the plot. With little scoring being put in place, Deonarine attempted what he sucessfully played before, "the slog shot." Previously, Deonarine had used "The slog shot" as his get out of jail card. Unfortunatly on this occasion, Marcus North had the final laugh. The pressure could be easily seen on Deonarine's face. Before North had completed his action, Deonarine had already made a charge down the wicket. Sensing this, North bowled the ball towards the off-side. Deonarine knew that he now, he was in a spot of bother and attempted to heave himself towards the off-side. Unfortunatly for Deonarine, the ball spun sharply out of a very small rough patch as the additional bounce went straight into Haddin's gloves. Deonarine was only looking back for a splillage from Haddin. Haddin did break the stumps as Deonarine had sercummed to the pressure applied very well by the Australians. The Australians now knew that they were on top and had been for the majority of the Afternoon session.

Deonarine's wicket brought Trinidad all-rounder Dwayne Bravo to the wicket. Raising some spirits for the West Indian fans, he immediatly got off the mark and was looking to get bat on ball as himself aswell as Brendon Nash survived till Tea was called by both the umpires with West Indies at 4/170.

The second session had without a doubt belonged to the Australians as their constant pressure applied well by their bowlers had earned them rewards. It will be interesting to see how Nash and Bravo play after the 20 minute Tea interval which can only be seen, LIVE on Channel Nine!

West Indies Batting Card

Australia Bowling Card

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West Indies: 4/170 (54 Overs)
*B Nash 12(33) 1 Six
*D Bravo 6(16)

Day One, 3:40pm
Tea Interval: 3:40pm - 4:00pm
Play will resume at 4:00pm

This Session:
65 runs, 28 overs, 2 wickets
Run rate for the session: 2.32

Scheduled overs remaining in the day: 36 Overs

 

[Dutchmen]

how come Deonarine was defensing while the bowl was over his head?

 

[AsadAbrar]

good presentation! Why was the umpire's hand missing?

 

[Pakistani Army]

how come Deonarine was defensing while the bowl was over his head?

Due to the variable bounce of the pitch. As you can see, the ball was of full length, but due to the variable bounce, the ball shot up.

good presentation! Why was the umpire's hand missing?

Thank you for the kind comments I don't understand what you mean brother?

 

[AsadAbrar]

in this picture the umpire's hand is missing!

 

[Pakistani Army]

in this picture the umpire's hand is missing!

Oh, you were on about the previous picture. Yeah, that was my poor cutting! :doh

 

[AsadAbrar]

^it looks really funny!

 

[Aditya]

Sarwan and Deonarine both got starts but both were not able to go ahead and play a big innings. Hopefully Nash and Bravo would be able to build a partnership and take West Indies innings to a good position.

 

[Gorro_124]

great presentation!!