Australia's Brett Lee looks back at Brian Lara from the West Indies after nearly dismissing him during the first day of the second Test in Hobart yesterday. - REUTERS
HOBART, CMC:
ANOTHER DEPLORABLE batting effort against a disciplined but hardly devastating Australian bowling attack has already consigned West Indies to the prospect of a second consecutive massive defeat after just one day of the second Test yesterday at Bellerive Oval.
In an abject performance that was even more galling than their capitulations in both innings of the first Test in Brisbane, where they were mauled by 379 runs, the visitors lost their last seven wickets for 30 runs in being routed for 149 in less than 69 overs after choosing to bat first in conditions that could not have been more tailor-made for batting.
As if to emphasise just what they had missed out on, the hosts reached 60 without loss from 19 overs before stumps were drawn, with Matthew Hayden not out on 31 and Mike Hussey on 26 not out.
NEW TEST INNINGS LOW
The West Indies' paltry effort established a new record Test innings low at Bellerive, beating the 161 by New Zealand in both innings of the 1993-94 Test here.
Veteran seamer Glenn McGrath led the rout with four wickets for 31 runs from 23 overs, while fast bowler Brett Lee and legspinner Stuart MacGill took three wickets each.
MacGill yet again made an impact after being dropped for the first Test, and once more out-bowled his more celebrated counterpart, Shane Warne, who went wicketless off 11 overs.
Not even the sensational news of Trinidad & Tobago's qualification for the 2006 FIFA World Cup Finals in Germany just hours before the start of play could lift the Caribbean side's effort.
If anything, it exactly mirrored the experience of eight years earlier when Jamaica made history in becoming the first English-speaking Caribbean team to reach football's showpiece occasion.
Even as the Reggae Boyz' achievement was being celebrated, West Indies were routed by Pakistan on the opening day of the 1997 series in Peshawar on the way to being swept 3-0 by Wasim Akram's side.
It was a hammering that initiated a succession of whitewash defeats endured by the West Indies in ensuing years and there is little to suggest that Ricky Ponting will not enjoy a similar triumph at the helm of the Australians by the time the series concludes in Adelaide at the end of the month.
For all of the optimistic and hopeful pronouncements by captain Shivnarine Chanderpaul and head coach Bennett King ahead of the match, the West Indies batting reverted to the depressing type that betrayed the failure of established players to learn from their many mistakes of the very recent past.
That they continue to hold almost unchallenged places in the regional side, despite the embarrassing repetitiveness of their failings only compounds a festering culture of complacency that seems unshaken by each setback.
It all felt so different at the start of play when Chanderpaul won the toss with the visitors correcting the obvious selectorial error of the first Test and replacing Jermaine Lawson with Dwayne Bravo.
Yet expectations among the few West Indian fans present, and indeed several thousand Tasmanians hoping for a contest, quickly faded in the bright morning sunshine.
Getting no assistance from the pitch, Lee's sheer speed at full length accounted for Devon Smith, who was bowled off the inside edge after half-hour.
GAYLE RETIRES HURT
Chris Gayle then had to retire temporarily suffering from what appeared to be a recurrence of the ill feeling that he occasionally suffers from as a result of a congenital heart condition. At the other end, Ramnaresh Sarwan copied his first innings dismissal in Brisbane, pushing at McGrath to give a simple catch to wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist and ushering in Chanderpaul to partner Brian Lara at 26 for two.
The pair survived to lunch, when just 49 runs had been scratched from 26 overs, but Lara again became the victim of another questionable lbw decision, Pakistani umpire Aleem Dar supporting Lee's appeal despite bowling around-the-wicket to the left-hander.
The star batsman's painstaking knock of 13 extended his poor run on this Australian sojourn to 104 runs from nine innings, and would have dented his considerable delight at his home country's achievements in Bahrain in the very early hours of the morning.
Gayle resumed his innings on Lara's demise and hit Warne out of the attack with sixes in consecutive overs. Another rasping boundary off Andrew Symonds took him to his 50 off 88 balls with seven fours and two sixes, but he then lost Chanderpaul for 39 just before tea to a bat-pad catch by debutant Brad Hodge at short-leg in MacGill's second over to end a 59-run fourth-wicket partnership.
It proved the explosion that triggered the now usual landslide of West Indian wickets.
Gayle had advanced to a top score of 56 when he was deceived by McGrath's slower ball and ruled lbw by South African umpire Rudi Koertzen, another decision that could have gone either way.
The crumble was well underway immediately after tea with Bravo taken close in by Hodge off MacGill, and Denesh Ramdin caught by Warne at slip after the impetuous wicketkeeper/batsman charged at the leg-spinner, slipped and still managed a hopeful swish in the manner of a confirmed No. 11.
McGrath then accounted for Marlon Samuels and Fidel Edwards before Ponting summoned Lee to finish off the innings with a lifter that touched Daren Powell's glove through to Gilchrist.
SCOREBOARD
West Indies first innings
C. Gayle lbw McGrath 56
D. Smith b Lee 4
R. Sarwan c Gilchrist b McGrath 2
B. Lara lbw Lee 13
S. Chanderpaul c Hodge b MacGill 39
M. Samuels c Gilchrist b McGrath 5
D. Bravo c Hodge b MacGill 3
D. Ramdin c Warne b MacGill 2
D. Powell c Gilchrist b Lee 15
F. Edwards c Symonds b McGrath 0
C. Collymore not out 3
Extras: (3lb,4nb) 7
TOTAL: (all out) 149.
Overs: 68.3. Batting Time: 292 minutes.
Fall: 1-15, 2-26, 3-60, 4-119, 5-119, 6-124, 7-126, 8-130, 9-141, 10-149.
Bowling: Glenn McGrath 23-9-31-4 (1nb), Brett Lee 13.3-6-32-3 (2nb), Andrew Symonds 10-4-17-0 (1nb), Shane Warne 11-2-48-0, Stuart MacGill 11-3-18-3.
Australia first innings
M. Hayden not out 31
M. Hussey not out 26
Extras (3nb) 3
TOTAL: (without loss) 60.
Overs: 18. Batting Time: 85 minutes.
Bowling: Fidel Edwards 6-1-22-0, Daren Powell 8-1-32-0 (3nb), Corey Collymore 3-1-6-0, Dwayne Bravo 1-1-0-0.
