- REUTERS
India's batsman Sachin Tendulkar (right) plays a shot as Sri Lankan wicketkeeper Kumar Sangakkara looks on during their second one-day international cricket match in Mohali yesterday.
BRISBANE, Australia (CMC):
DEVON SMITH gifted himself with a belated birthday present, stroking his way to hundred in laying the foundation for a strong West Indies reply to the Queensland Bulls' first innings total of 323 on a shortened second day of their four-day fixture at Allan Border Field yesterday.
A week after he turned 24, the compact left-hander's innings of 115 proved the most pleasing aspect of a satisfying half-day for the tourists, who were to resume on Day Three today (Friday night, Caribbean time) at a healthy 252 for three with Marlon Samuels (20) and skipper Shivnarine Chanderpaul (11) keen to continue the good work following an opening stand of 130 between Smith and Chris Gayle.
The few hundred fans at this village green-style ground were expecting to see Brian Lara stride to the middle in the late afternoon sunshine when Ramnaresh Sarwan fell for 37, only for Samuels to take the vice-captain's place.
They were even more hopeful when Smith lost concentration and drove off-spinner Chris Simpson to mid-off half-an-hour before the close, but Chanderpaul emerged from the players' pavilion.
EXCELLENT BATTING PITCH
Official word from team management was that the champion left-hander remained in some discomfort after injuring the little finger on his left hand when he put down a catch at slip late on the opening day.
On an excellent batting pitch, and even with Wavell Hinds ruled out of the rest of the match with a fractured finger, the visitors not just Lara can ill afford to waste the chance to pile on the runs in the lead-up to the first Test against Australia beginning next Thursday at the Gabba.
Smith brought up his fifty with his tenth boundary and that was the signal for Gayle to accelerate as the destructive left-hander started to unfurl a series of crunching drives on the way to registering his own half-century with eight fours.
Le Loux, who top-scored with 63 in the Bulls' first innings, eventually got a deserved first first-class wicket when Gayle, on 58, glanced a leg-side delivery into the gloves of wicketkeeper Chris Hartley.
Samuels played a couple of lordly off-drives for boundaries but the elegant right-hander exercised great care in the main as if to suggest that he was priming himself for a really long innings.
SCOREBOARD
QUEENSLAND 1st Innings 323 (R.Le Loux 63; D.Powell 4-58)
WEST INDIES 1st Innings
(overnight 13 without loss)
C Gayle c wkp Hartley b Le Loux 58
D Smith c Hopes b Simpson 115
R Sarwan st Hartley b Symonds 37
M Samuels not out 20
S Chanderpaul not out 11
Extras (b2, w2, nb7) 11
TOTAL (for 3 wickets) 252
Fall of wickets: 1-130, 2-193, 3-237
To bat: B Lara, W Hinds, D Bravo, +D Ramdin, T Best, D Powell
Bowling: Johnson 7-1-33-0 (2nb); Kasprowicz 13-4-48-0 (2nb, 2w); Watson 7.2-0-40-1; Le Loux 10-0-46-1; Simpson 11-2-50-1; Symonds 11-6-17-1; Hopes 7-3-16-0.
