Tony Becca - On The Boundary THE WEST Indies are two-down against Australia and they now no longer can even dream of winning the series. In fact, with Aussie captain Steve Waugh saying that it is on his mind, the Windies ambition now must be to draw at least one of the remaining two matches and prevent a whitewash for the first time at home.
After losing the first Test by nine wickets and the second by 118 runs, however, even a draw will be difficult to achieve against a team that has declared three times in four innings, that has scored 1,450 runs while losing only 18 wickets, and that will now include ace pacer Glenn McGrath.
The Aussies are so strong that Brian Lara may well be right when he said, at the end of his post-match chat with reporters, that probably Australia should be handicapped.
'I don't know if anyone here follows horse-racing but may be Australia should be handicapped, then maybe we could get a draw,' said the West Indies captain.
Coming from a man who is usually such an optimist, that is high praise for Australia. It admits that this West Indies team is not in the same class as this Australia team and that is a fact.
Once that is accepted, the effort by the West Indies, the performance of some of their batsmen a number of whom are young and inexperienced should be applauded.
Although they were always up against it from the time Australia won the toss and decided to bat, the West Indies, for a time, made Australia's batsmen work for their runs, and with Lara setting the pace with a brilliant 91 and 122, with Daren Ganga playing well in the first innings for his second century in a row, with Marlon Samuels also parading his talent in the first innings, and Ramnaresh Sarwan standing firm in the second innings, they fought like tigers to save the match.
Faced with Australia's massive 576 for four declared in the first innings, the West Indies put up a successful fight to save the follow-on, and set 407 to win in four sessions, although they failed in the end to pull off what would have been a record-breaking victory, they did cause Australia some anxious moments when, after losing two quick wickets, they eased to 210 for three at lunch on the final day.
Although the odds at that time were still against the West Indies winning the match, a draw was possible, and the disappointment was that they lost five wickets for 28 runs immediately after the interval with Sarwan and the young newcomers, David Bernard Jnr. and Carlton Baugh Jnr., all falling to poor shots.
Up to then, and all things considered, including going into the match with an attack of only three bowlers, without a spin bowler, and the number of young, inexperienced batsmen in the team, the West Indies did well against the mighty Australia and their bunch of experienced players.
The fans certainly appreciated the fighting spirit of the team at certain stages, they certainly enjoyed the stroke play of Lara, Ganga and Samuels, and certainly in the first innings, they were impressed with the confident and positive approach of Bernard and Baugh.
Some times victory is not what is important.
When a team is obviously not as good as the other, what is important is how well it plays, and the bowling apart, but for a few careless strokes by some of their young batsmen and those few minutes after lunch on the final day, in the circumstances, all things considered, and even though they picked up only seven wickets while conceding 814 runs, the West Indies did quite well at Queen's Park Oval.
