Australia in West Indies: Kangaroos’ Decline, or Caribbean’s Rise?

A 2-0 result may sound a very comprehensive win, indeed, in a three-match Test series. Yet, one gets the feeling that this wasn’t at all the case during the Frank Worrell Trophy.

While the Aussies often stuttered with bat and ball, the Windies showed nerves of steel at times (surprisingly) to make every match in this series a memorable one!

The fact that West Indies did not face a single innings defeat and actually managed a draw should do their confidence a world of good. For, try and deny it as you may, they have been bordering on the minnow status for some time now.

The runaway star of the show was Chanderpaul. His man of the series performance almost singlehandedly exposed the state of the Aussie bowling attack. One wonders, had Warne and McGrath been there, would they have allowed a No. 5 batsman to score 442 runs?

With all due respect to the man, Chanderpaul does have weaknesses, and it is quite apparent that the Australians certainly missed a trick there. Yet beginning the series with an average of 47, and ending with 49, Chanderpaul has fittingly put himself into the shoes that belonged to Lara.

And I dare say, he just might do a better job of a batting mainstay! Sarwan, too, managed to garner some runs, a most remarkable hundred in the final innings of the drawn Test match at North Sound being the highlight of tournament for me!

The fact that numbers three and five have been the most successful batsmen in this tournament is both, good news, and bad news for West Indies.

While it highlights their batting strength in the middle order, it also exposes their brittle top order, with their ever random opening pair.

Constantly changing the top order can have its effect on the openers’ confidence.

With Xavier Marshall’s brave inning of 85 in the last game, and Chris Gayle’s recovery, though, and Bravo’s bravados at number six, it seems West Indies might have a chance to field a batting order worthy of Test match standards.

Talking of Bravo, the man has transformed from the lackluster cricketer he was during Lara’s reign. My earliest memories of him are of his charging in to bowl against South Africa in a one day game at home, and pointing to his name on the back of his jersey, ala Raul, after claiming a wicket.

He also stirred quite a few emotions when he dismissed Yuvraj Singh off the last ball of the match to win West Indies the game by one solitary run! Though it would be premature to state that he has reached his pinnacle, it would be safe to say that he has matured greatly.

If he continues in this vein, he might just end up being West Indies’ second greatest all-rounder ever!

The other aspect of West Indian flair was the fast bowling! Fidel Edwards, playing all three games was the highest wicket taker for West Indies. With 15 wickets to his name, including a five wicket haul, best match figures of 8 for 144, and an average of 25.13, he was the pick of the bowlers.

Jerome Taylor missed the first Test, and proved why his team missed him too, with 8 wickets in the remaining games, and figures of 3 for 46 during the dismantling of Australia’s famed batting line-up in the in the third Test.

In Edwards, Taylor, Powell and Bravo, the team has a world class quartet, and this came to the fore when they had Australia on the mat in the third Test, reeling at 96 for 4!

Not only did their bowling performance indicate what West Indies can achieve if their bowlers are given a decent track, it also showed Australia’s dependence on Ponting and Hussey.

Almost invariably, when either of the two fails, the other takes charge and delivers the side home. But when both fail, the team struggles, and the middle order, it seems, lacks total spine!

While Ponting had a strong start to the series with a typically aggressive 158, that saw him post 10,000 runs in Test cricket, he faded away in the rest of the tournament posting just one fifty thereafter.

After his century in the first inning of the tournament, Ponting averaged a meager 33 for the remainder of the series, still ending up with a more than respectable tour average of 53.83.

The big failure, of course, was Michael Hussey. With just 137 runs, an average of 22.83, and a solitary fifty, he was the major disappointment for Australia on this tour.

Simon Katich, on the other hand, was reading a totally different script than that of Hussey! Replacing Hayden at the top of the order is probably the most difficult job in Australian cricket, and Katich took to it like fish to water.

Hayden himself couldn’t have been more consistent. Katich, never close to being as belligerent as Haydos with a strike rate of 46.56, eked out two hundreds for his side, finishing the third highest run scorer in the series, with 319 runs, in just 5 innings, and averaging a marvelous (considering he had no not-outs) 63.80.

His top score of 157 came in the last match, where he shared a memorable partnership with Phil Jaques (108), putting the game, and effectively the series, beyond West Indies’ grasp. Australia’s bowling, it seems, now, more or less, is about one man, Brett Lee. The premier fast bowler of the world kept rattling the hosts’ top order, and finishing off their tail.

Stuart Clark provided a few side shows, and with a remarkable economy of 2.28, averaged just above 19, while Mitchell Johnson was almost silent throughout the tour, averaging over 34. For a new ball bowler, he certainly let his team down.

Another Stuart, Stuart MacGill, made a quiet departure from Test match cricket. The man who forever lived under the shadow of Shane Warne failed to capitalize in the absence of the Aussie legend.

Recuperating from a surgery, he was no more the bowler he used to be, and decided to call it a day, adding to the long, long list of players to have retired from the international side for Australia over the last three seasons.

This brings us to the point: was this series, highlighted by the eighth-ranked test team in the world giving the numero uno side a run for its money in every game, a sign of a resurgent West Indies, or the beginning of the invariable end of Aussie domination?