The West Indies, yet again, came face-to-face with unavoidable reality in their first Super Eight match at the Sir Vivian Richards stadium over the past two days.
It is that their only chance of completing their cherished goal of becoming the first team to win the World Cup at home is to play with the intensity, ruthlessness and above all, the cricketing common sense that typified Australia’s comfortable victory against them yesterday.
Nor can they overcome the reputable opponents that they play today by relying on one player, in this instance captain Brian Lara who watched in despair at the thoughtlessness that cost regular wickets while he stroked a classy, untroubled 77 off 83 balls.
Matthew Hayden’s commanding 153 on the previous day shook the West Indies to the core and was the corner stone of an Australian total of 322 for six.
It was formidable but they had scored even more and yet succumbed twice in successive matches in New Zealand only a few weeks earlier. It was a statistic that should have given the West Indies more than over optimistic hope when they began their reply in hot sunshine yesterday.
What it did was energize the Australians. Their pride had been dented by the loss of five successive matches – two to England, three to New Zealand – immediately preceding their departure for the West Indies and they were determined to end the sequence.
They came seeking an unprecedented hat-trick of World Cup titles and the way they have started indicates that it will require more fight than the West Indies showed here to deny them.
They crushed South Africa in their previous match in the group stage and have right away shown they mean business.
Shaun Tait, their genuinely fast, but unpredictable, bo-wler, sprayed a couple of leg-side wides in the opening over but there was not the slightest hint of panic or distress.
Their fielders in the restricting area swooped on everything and rifled their returns to Adam Gilchrist, even with the batsmen well back in their crease.
Sir Viv Richards, commenting on the game for BBC radio from the new stadium bearing his name, described them as “like a pack of wolves.” The West Indies seemed intimidated.
Soon, Shivnarine Chanderpaul was lbw to Tait, probably a mistaken decision to a ball that was likely to slide past off-stump.
Chris Gayle and Marlon Samuels followed to needless, skied catches to the close fielders. Samuels was especially culpable, following an exquisite cover-driven boundary with an out-and-out swipe that skewed off the outside half of the bat.
Lara charmed another un-dersized attendance, and raised hopes of the muted West Indian element, with classical strokes.
Like Hayden, who spent 18 balls over his first run, Lara took his time to assess conditions, spending 20 balls over his first eight runs. It was the discipline that was needed but was shunned by most of his teammates.
A partnership with Ramnaresh Sarwan was just developing when the left-arm wrist spinner Brad Hogg served up a knee-high full toss and Sarwan swatted the worst ball of the day straight to mid-wicket.
If that was not the end of the unlikely West Indies chances, it came soon afterwards with yet another loose stroke, Dwayne Bravo driving to mid-off.
Hogg also removed Lara, lbw attempting a cheeky deflection, and the only subsequent encouragement for the West Indies was Denish Ramdin’s assertive half-century.
It was proof that the 22-year-old wicket-keeper has regained his confidence that had clearly waned and affected his all-round game. His return to his best has been increasingly evident in his work behind the stumps and was now transferred to that in front of them.
Others need to follow suit, starting today against New Zealand. Otherwise, West Indies’ chances of advancing to the semi-finals will quickly evaporate.