Tony Becca
The West Indies dream of winning the DLF Tri-Nations tournament in Kuala Lumpur ended in disaster on Sunday when they where soundly thrashed by Australia in, as it turned out, a one-sided contest.
After bowling and fielding quite well - to the point where Australia, apparently in trouble at 99 for three off 30 overs, the West Indies, after limiting Australia to 240 for six in their allotted 50 overs, were dismissed for 113 in 34.2 overs after sliding to 56 for six and diving to defeat by 127 runs with 15.4 overs still to be bowled.
Once again, it was an embarrassing performance by their batsmen, with only Brian Lara and possibly Chris Gayle, victims of umpiring errors, deserving any sympathy.
Once again, the West Indies batting was atrocious, the West Indies batsmen batted like novices, and one is running out of words to describe their failure as they went down one by one like lambs to the slaughter.
While there is no doubt that the pitch was not easy for batting, unlike the Australians who buckled down and fought like tigers while parading their technical skills, their ability to know what to attack, what not to attack, and their will to win, the West Indians went to their deaths without even a whimper - one of them dying without even attempting one attacking stroke, some of them dying through wanton carelessness and recklessness.
After Gayle's unfortunate demise to the first delivery of the innings, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, the batsman who cannot decide what to do whenever he goes to bat - whether to attack or to defend, fidgeted about before he attempted to go at left-arm pacer Nathan Bracken, checked his shot and lobbed a catch to wide mid-on.
Runako Morton, who really seems out of his depth against quality bowling, blocked and poked around for 30 deliveries without scoring one single run before he was leg before wicket to Bracken.
Suicide
After Lara's unfortunate exit, Dwayne Bravo committed suicide when he attempted to pull Shane Watson and lobbed a catch to Ricky Ponting at mid-wicket.
It was 56 for six in the 23rd over when Wavell Hinds attempted to drive Watson without moving his feet and lost his off-stump.
For a brief interlude, in a short flurry of strokes, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Dwayne Smith tried a bluff and posted 50 runs for the seventh wicket in 7.4 overs.
It was, however, like a drowning man clutching at straws, and when Sarwan was run-out, when Smith tempted fate once too often and was caught at mid-wicket by Ponting off Brett Lee, when Ian Bradshaw edged Lee to the wicketkeeper, and when Carlton Baugh Jnr. - the diminutive wicketkeeper/batsman who, as a batsman, continues to look like a schoolboy playing with big men at the Test level, attempted to hook Lee and embarrassingly skied a catch to the wicketkeeper, it was all over.
The West Indies, who had lost nine wickets for 29 runs in the first match against Australia, the West Indies who, after chasing 272 and sailing along merrily at 242 for three, had lost four wickets for 13 runs in 3.2 overs before hanging to win the second match against Australia, and West Indies, the same West Indies who, chasing 162 for victory, were routed for 146 in the second match against India, died without a whimper in a spineless performance by their batsmen.
With the West Indies going into the match - a 50-over contest - with only two specialist bowlers, with Lara losing the toss and batting second on a pitch of uneven bounce and under floodlights, with Smith, whose eight overs cost only 35 runs, not being allowed to finish his quota of 10, with Morton batting at number three and with both Gayle and Lara falling through umpiring mistakes, one can always find other reasons why the West Indies lost the DLF Cup.
The main reason, however, for both the defeat and for the heavy, embarrassing defeat, was their batsmen. Their batsmen - Chanderpaul, Morton, Bravo, Hinds, Smith and Baugh - failed to bat. Had they batted even half as well as Australia's Damien Martyn, Andrew Symonds and Michael Hussey, the West Indies, who to tell, may have won the match and the Cup.
