The inconsistency, individual indiscipline, general lethargy and lack of leadership that have combined to drag West Indies cricket down to where it presently stands were in embarrassing evidence on the third day of the second Test at McClean Park yesterday.
They left Chris Gayle’s team in a precarious position entering the fourth day (overnight east Caribbean time), still two runs in arrears in their second innings with Sewnarine Chattergoon and Ramnaresh Sarwan already gone.
The situation would have been worse but for the inspiration of the always tenacious Fidel Edwards and the calm Jerome Taylor who between them saw to it that the last six New Zealand wickets added only 55.
Edwards’ seven for 87 in New Zealand’s first innings were his best figures at Test or first-class level and carried his count in Tests to 105 wickets.
Taylor was a calming influence immediately following a reprehensible mid-pitch tantrum by Daren Powell. He defused the issue by immediately bowling opener Tim McIntosh, whose 136 was the backbone of the innings, and claiming the dangerous Brendan McCullum for 31.
Edwards then polished off the tail, restricting a deficit that threatened to be unmanageable to 64.
It was a distinct transformation of what had gone before.
Although Edwards dismissed Ross Taylor to wicket-keeper Denesh Ramdin’s catch with the day’s second ball, the West Indies’ effort inexplicably, if not unusually, reverted to familiar resignation.
Gone was the energy and enthusiasm of the previous day when New Zealand were forced to labour 68 overs over their 145 for two. In their place came inertia, typified by hand-in-pockets body language that spoke loudly of a reluctance to be in the middle of a freezing cold cricket ground.
From his post at slip, Gayle was even more blasé about things than usual.
He removed Edwards after three overs and replaced him with the left-arm spin of Sulieman Benn. He brought on the club standard left-arm medium-pace of Brendan Nash for Powell before he himself had a whirl with his off-spin. And the new ball wasn’t taken until five overs after it was due.
The New Zealand pair, left-handers Tim McIntosh and Jesse Ryder, must have thought Santa Claus had come early.
Within the hour, they had raised 50 between them off 15 overs. On the previous day, that landmark required 30.2 overs and two and a quarter hours.
When Taylor was finally handed the new ball, in partnership with Powell, his average pace was in the range of the mid-130 kilometres per hour, at least 10 below his usual.
There was no threat from Powell at the opposite end, except to the boundary boards, as McIntosh and Ryder did as they pleased, pulling and driving with powerful certainty.
The West Indies attitude was reflected in four overthrows that carried the heavyset Ryder past his second successive 50. The tall McIntosh, let off at 10 by the shocking Edwards-Ramdin muddle the previous day, soon followed to his maiden hundred in his third Test innings.
The pair had added exactly 100, from 22 overs, when Edwards was brought back and gained his fourth wicket 20 minutes before lunch through Ramdin’s straightforward catch off Ryder’s slack cut shot.
McCullum, the feisty wicket-keeper with a belligerent attitude, was next in and immediately lit Powell’s fuse with a dismissive drive over extra-cover into the stand for six.
When, on resumption, McCullum started to move down the pitch even on the fast bowler’s approach, Powell raged. He ran through the crease and deliberately threw the ball past the batsman towards the slips.
A bouncer, a waist high full toss and a few expletives, audible through the television stump microphone, followed. It was an unseemly episode for which Powell seems certain to face disciplinary action from ICC referee Javagal Srinath after the match.
New Zealanders still recall the infamous 1980 series here with its images of Michael Holding kicking over the stumps in one Test, Colin Croft bouncing into umpire Fred Goodall in another and Clive Lloyd threatening to abort the tour.
If the provocation could then be claimed as blatantly biased umpiring, there was no defence for Powell’s action. It would have been helpful had Gayle intervened but he remained unmoved at first slip throughout.
West Indies manager Omar Khan said afterwards that he was “taken aback” by the display. But, he added that whatever action he takes, if any, would be at the end of the Test.
The rest of the day was the calm after the storm.
Taylor refocused the West Indies on the job at hand with the removal of McIntosh (455 minutes, 337 balls, 21 fours) to a delivery that cut back to find a way through his defence and McCullum as Ramdin atoned for an earlier leg-side miss off Edwards,
The end came quickly after that.
Powell, reintroduced after an over’s rest to cool off, dismissed the left-handed James Franklin to a slip catch and the unflagging Edwards worked his way through the rest.
The West Indies were left with 18 overs second time round before murky light cut the day short with six overs remaining.
Gayle and Sewnarine Chattergoon approached it as if they were getting ready for the forthcoming 20/20s. Gayle smashed two fours and pulled two massive sixes and his diminutive partner stroked four clean off-side boundaries, all off the new ball pair, Ian O’Brien and Kyle Mills.
They raced to 58 off 11.5 overs but were then stalled by the spin of Jeetan Patel and Daniel Vettori. The remaining 6.1 overs yielded four runs and Chattergoon and Sarwan did not make it through.
The former was undone by a perfect off-break from Patel that he edged to slip. The latter’s miserable series ended on a referral to the television replay after Rudi Keortzen turned down Vettori’s lbw appeal.
Thrusting uncertainly forward, Sarwan was hit first on the front bad, then the bat. Third umpire Mark Benson’s advice to Keortzen was that the ball would have taken off-stump.
It was a unhappy way to end an unhappy day.
