West Indies Splash Colour On The Beige Brigade

Powell - maiden hundred

The West Indies have moved, predictably, into a strong position after three days against New Zealand. Adding 297 for just six wickets in the day, they now lead the Kiwis by 91 runs. Chris Gayle and Kieron Powell both raised centuries in an opening stand of 254. They weren't separated until just after lunch when they had cut the New Zealand lead to under a hundred.

Gayle was cautious in the first half dozen overs but went to his hundred with two sixes in five deliveries. The first was a swat off DanVettori over long off and the second, a short ball outside off fittingly supplied by Chris Martin, which he sent so far over midwicket that it needed a passport to get back into the ground. His third fifty had been slow but he accelerated again and Martin and Neil Wagner suffered the worst blows. Meanwhile, Powell move smoothly to a very good maiden Test hundred, pulling Wagner so powerfully between the two men either side of square leg, that neither could stop it.

Mind you, fielding was not a highlight of the New Zealand's play. Gayle was dropped just before lunch. Kane Williamson surprised him with a ball that bounced and caught the edge, Kruger van Wyk brushed it on and Ross Taylor floored it at slip. It was odd that at so many other times during the day New Zealanders wanted to reconstruct that Australian icon, the Sydney Harbour Bridge, but imitate it they did with remarkable accuracy and to the satisfaction of the West Indies batsmen.

After lunch, Gayle was keen on carnage and quickly raised his 150 but then misjudged a flighted Williamson off break too soon after lunch, took it low and on the outside edge of the bat and still sent it miles before Brendon McCullum swallowed it at deep mid off. Heaven knows how far back it might have gone had he middled it. Asad Fudadin helped Powell add 50 at four an over before the other opener was out, again just after a break, this time drinks. Marlon Samuels, looking ominously in the same form as his England tour scored the majority of the 52 runs added until tea. The last session, elongated owing to showers in the first session, did not bode well for the New Zealanders.

Break damage took its toll after tea. Samuels and Shiv Chanderpaul were gone inside three overs, both to the much mauled Martin. Samuels played lazily away from his body, a trait he is renowned for and chopped on. The remarkable blow happened in Martin's next over when he did Chanderpaul with a short ball which brushed the gloves on its way to van Wyk. Narisingh Deonarine joined Fudadin in a decidedly nervous partnership. The game situation called for strokeplay but with both guilty of throwing away innings in the past and quick wickets allowing New Zealand an undeserved escape, that opted for pushed singles and caution and edged rather than blasted West Indies into an even stronger position. Both made half centuries in a stand of 55. As things began to loosen, Fudadin followed Gayle's example and hit down the ground from Williamson where McCullum held a remarkable catch deep, deep at long on. Out of position early in the ball's flight, he caught it anyway which is the only thing team mates will remember. Ramdin came and went, playing on to Bracewell.

Taylor rotated his bowlers, in the modern way, especially in the last session. Four over spells were the norm. Michael Clark has a similar ploy but his is to make things happen, where as Taylor does it so things won't. Sure it was a warm afternoon. Sure the pitch is a peach. Sure if the West Indies exploded New Zealand would be sunk. The problem with the four over rotation and the defensive field settings and the ultra conservative approach of playing Vettori the veteran who concedes little rather than gambling with the big turning leg breaks of Tarun Nathula ... the problem with all these tactics ... they concede that the opposition is too good for you and the best you can do is hold them up. Tests are won by taking 20 wickets and scoring  runs beyond three and a half an over. New Zealand under Taylor and Vettori before him, play to avoid losing. Michael Clarke and Andrew Strauss play to win.

Williamson 2-47

Vettori was tight. Big deal. The West Indies are 6-442. When Samuels and Chanderpaul fell within eight balls after tea, did Taylor rush into the opening with attacking fields and aggressive bowling. No, no, just more of the same please. This never would have happened under Stephen Fleming.

Kane Williamson bowled really well. For a part time off spinner, his work was impressive. He wasn't intimidated by Gayle and under the old school of thinking, claiming two of the top order by having them loft you into the hands of mid off was good bowling. He didn't turn the ball much but that was still more than his senior partner, Vettori. Doug Bracewell was also impressive and deserved better returns.

Vettori's survival in the big boys game has always amazed me. He is the prime example of why his style of bowling should be banned. Unlike Bedi or Underwood, he never attacks, terrified that a batsman might accept the challenge and maul him. He would be more concerned tonight at the sixes he conceded to Gayle and Samuels than the wickets he might have taken, yet it was the temptation Williamson offered Gayle that undid him. Vettori doesn't threaten batsmen. He's less threatening than a toothless Grandma ... on Sunday ... in church ... dressed in form rubber ... in a coma ...

Kruger van Wyk came into the side for the South Aftican home series last March. He bats a bit and is tidy enough behind the stumps but his constant removal of the bails when standing up can only antagonise umpires. He thinks everything is out (as do most keepers), sometimes raising raucous shouts for stumpings when the batsman has both feet safe in holy ground. Thinking he had Darren Sammy late in the day, he even wanted to disagree with technology and slow motion replays saying the opposite. He shook his head for two overs like one of those dogs on the back shelf of a sedan.

The only sideshow moment of the day came in the last hour when Asad Fudadin drove upishly at Vettori, straight to Martin Guptil at silly point. From behind, it looked like he might have dropped an impossibly hard catch, as he collapsed to the ground holding his head in apparent disappointment. It was only when the camera angle was reversed that it became obvious disappointment was not his preoccupation. The ball had taken a laser-guided trajectory to Guptil's bag of treasures. Every man watching groaned, sucked in big ones and had an urge to fondle his own for reassurance. When Guptil fetched a protector for the next over, we went through it all again.

The Kiwis were so boring, that a small supporter crew, dressed in the classic 1980's New Zealand beige and brown one day uniform (designed by Richie himself), gave up cheering from the empty terraces and went permanently to the bar for the last hour. It made for a shorter walk between ales. Six men and one undiscerning yet shapely beige bikini clad young lady called Bar-bar-ra (they wouldn't have got a sheep through customs) had left behind their rubbish and there he lay, comatose and unable to register the Kiwis winning the last session. Ask him next year and he'll remember every ball. Its a New Zealand thing. Even the tall blokes have small man syndrome.

With Deonarine established and the explosive Sammy at the crease, West Indies will up the tempo and will add 100 in the first session tomorrow or die trying.

Session Count: West Indies 5, New Zealand 2, Drawn 2

Paul Reiffel - Test umpiring debut

NOTE: It has been remiss of thecricketragics not to note already that former Australian fast bowler Paul Reifel has made his debut as a Test umpire in this game. One of two former Australia Test cricketers to also umpire at Test level (the other was Charlie Bannerman), he has built a reputation in what has been a relatively short career standing motionless behind the stumps, a reputation based on the clarity and accuracy of his judgment and his rapport with the players. As Chuck Fleetwood Dickens might have said, "It is a far, far better thing you do than you have ever done." Congratulations Pistol.