Tony Becca
THE WEST Indies seem to have perfected the art of losing.
Once the most ruthless finishers in the game, the Windies, based on their recent performances, based on their last performance when they managed to turn victory into defeat, no longer know how to win, not even when they are standing on the doorstep of victory.
After winning the toss and sending New Zealand to bat, they had the home team reeling at 69 for four and let them off the hook.
After dismissing the home team for 275 and reaching 47 without loss, they dropped to 49 for three, 60 for four, and fell for 257.
LOSE WICKETS
After cornering the home team at 146 for seven and 210 for eight, they allowed them to recover to 272.
And after they were set 291 to win with over two days to go, after hopping to 148 without loss and 211 for three, they lost all 10 wickets for 115 runs - the last seven for 52 - and crashed to defeat by 27 runs.
In other words, the West Indies, on a number of occasions during the Test match, played themselves into a winning position and then, probably because losing has become such a habit, proceeded to throw them away one by one.
Following two blatant mis-takes by the umpires who robbed the West Indies of eight runs when, on two occasions, the umpires ruled that the batsmen had not offered a stroke when the ball brushed the pads of Ramnaresh Sarwan and Chris Gayle and ran away to the boundary, following the decision to use another ball when Gayle had smashed Daniel Vettori into the stands in the 36th over, there may be those who will say that the luck ran against the West Indies.
Although eight runs would still have left the visitors short, even though the West Indies added 48 runs after the ball was changed and before the West Indies lost their first wicket, they may be right.
However, based on the recent history of the West Indies team;, based on the number of times they have collapsed; on the many times they have lost many wickets for few runs while diving to defeat, that is no excuse.
The harsh reality is that the West Indies played some bad cricket and although their batting is supposed to be their strength, this time, once again, it is the batting, stretched down the order to Denesh Ramdin at number eight, which let them down.
DONE BETTER
After the selectors had decided to go into the Test match with only three specialist bowlers, after one of them had broken down, the bowlers, led by Ian Bradshaw and Fidel Edwards, did well, and but for two dropped catches by wicketkeeper Ramdin, they may have done even better.
The batting, but for Gayle and Daren Ganga in the second innings, was, however, disap-pointing - very disappointing, and more so that of Sarwan, Brian Lara, captain Shivnarine Chanderpaul, and Ramdin.
Sarwan hooked at Shane Bond and offered a simple catch to long-leg in the first innings, and in the second innings, in attempting to duck, he took his eye off the ball, turned his back, and was hit in the head by Bond.
Lara faced only two deliveries from Bond in the match - one in the first innings when he pulled a short delivery to the right of the square-leg umpire and departed at 60 for four, and one in the second innings when, facing his first delivery of the innings, he walked across his stumps, exposed his legstump as usual, and was bowled.
PAYING PENALTY
Chanderpaul, probably finally paying the penalty for his ugly and awkward two-eyed stance, tickled a harmless delivery down the legside in the first innings, and in the second innings he mistimed an attempted big hit against left-arm spinner Vettori and swatted a simple catch to short mid-on.
Although he is a pup when compared to Sarwan, Lara and Chanderpaul, the batting of Ramdin in the second innings was just as disappointing.
For one with such good technique and with such temperament, it was surprising to see Ramdin sweeping time and time again against Vettori bowling in the rough outside the legstump until, after many lucky escapes, he finally, three deliveries before bad light was offered, hit the ball straight into the hands of James Franklyn at backward square-leg.
With New Zealand's batsmen batting as if they were still playing a one-day match, with so many opportunities to turn the screws and then a great chance to win it, the West Indies should have won the match, they should now be one-up in the three-match series, and they lost it because their batsmen failed to deliver - and none more so than Sarwan, Lara and Chanderpaul, their top three, who bat at number three, number four, and number five.
