By Tony Cozier
in NAPIER
THE West Indies faced the inevitable consequences of basically competing with no more than half a team when they entered the decisive last day of the second Test against New Zealand at McLean Park today (overnight east Caribbean time).
The outcome of the match determines whether they slip back to their long-held position at the bottom of the pack on the ICC rankings or remain above opponents who were demoted to the unenviable position after their innings loss to Australia in Adelaide last month.
Their position was insecure, 217 ahead, seven wickets down and 90 overs remaining on a still blameless pitch. The unbeaten presence of captain Chris Gayle, defiant throughout the fourth day’s 97 overs to still be batting with 146, was the key to where the contest was headed.
To claim victory, the West Indies would need everyone to pull his weight.
Over the first four days, as in the rain-ruined first Test, they had relied almost exclusively on four players. The contribution of the remaining seven players were negligible. It is an intolerable burden.
Their inadequate first innings of 307 was almost exclusively based on the unshakable Shivnarine Chanderpaul’s 126 not out and his fifth wicket partnership of 163 with Brendan Nash, the Jamaican newcomer by way of Australia, who has immediately demonstrated Chanderpaul-like qualities.
Only Fidel Edwards’ aggression and unwavering commitment which earned him seven of the 10 wickets, restricted what appeared likely to be a daunting New Zealand lead to 64.
On a crisp but cloudless fourth day, the resistance was limited once more, two men, Gayle and Nash, whose fifth wicket partnership put together 124 of the 216 mustered on the day. There was a grand total of 32 from the others who batted.
Occupying seven hours, 35 minutes and 325 balls by the end of the day, Gayle’s was a vital innings of uncommon resolve, patience and judgment.
Careful in the extreme against the combination of Daniel Vettori’s clever variations of left-arm spin and Jeetan Patel’s flighted off-spin that accounted for 65 overs on the day and troubled by cramp nearing the end that needed on-field attention, he nevertheless, added three sixes off Patel and one off Vettori to the two he had plundered off the new ball the previous evening.
One blow, onto the roof of the straight stand, was reckoned by knowledgeable locals to be the longest they could remember at the park. Its carry would have been fully 120 metres.
Gayle survived a referred, originally rejected lbw appeal early in the day for the plain reason that he edged the ball into his pad and spent 10 anxious overs in the 90s. He was within an inch or two of scooping a catch to mid-wicket from Patel at 95 and completed his eighth Test hundred through a scrambled single on a misfield at point.
It was his first three-figure innings since his 317 in 2005 against South Africa at the Antigua Recreation Ground, 47 innings earlier. In the circumstances, it was already probably his best, but his progress today would confirm it.
Nash, small and neat compared with his towering, powerful skipper, was as focused and unfussed as he had been in his 74 first time round. For all those explosions, his cleanest, sweetest strokes were five fours punched straight down the ground off spin and pace.
He arrived an hour into the day following the disbelief of Chanderpaul’s first ball dismissal and the manner of it.
Xavier Marshall edged a catch driving at Patel, against whom he was never settled, and Chanderpaul, caressing a full toss to leg, presented a soft return catch off the leading edge next ball. At 106 for four, the lead was 44. They were foreboding statistics.
For the remaining hour to lunch, all through the second session and a few minutes into the last, Gayle and Nash steered the West Indies towards calmer waters.
Gayle passed the landmark of 5,000 Test runs, joining 10 other West Indians, Nash completed his second 50 of the match and tea arrived with the pair entrenched and New Zealand becoming increasingly worried.
The second new ball shifted the balance once more.
Peppered with three bouncers in the third over by James Franklin the tall left-armer, Nash essayed an unlikely hook, took a glancing blow to the grill of his helmet and couldn’t avoid the last. It took his glove and lobbed to second slip.
For three hours, 20 minutes he had again revealed his value, his nine boundaries earned by his favoured cuts and shots off the hip.
Denesh Ramdin replaced him to spend a tortured half-hour that ended with a limp cut off Franklin into point’s lap. His cricket has inexplicably gone to pieces and Joey Carew might be right that it was wrong to saddle him with the vice-captaincy on Ramnaresh Sarwan’s resignation.
Jerome Taylor was more composed in his hour before Ian O’Brien deceived him with a full length slower ball to claim an lbw verdict.
Another 25 minutes remained and Fidel Edwards appeared, presumably and strangely as night-watchman to protect Sulieman Benn and Daren Powell.
He saw out the day but only through a missed catch at slip and a no-ball that negated an lbw decision.
By then, Gayle had been batting longer than in any one of his previous 133 Test innings except the 10 and a half hours he spent over his Antigua triple. He would need to stay in somewhat longer today to keep West Indies hopes realistic.
