West Indies captain Brian Lara pulls on his way to a top score of 77 against Australia in their Super Eight match at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua yesterday. - Dellmar

Tony Becca, Contributing Editor

ST. JOHN'S, Antigua:

WHOEVER SAID that batting is an art should have been at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium yesterday to see Brian Lara, the West Indies captain and undoubtedly the world's number one batsman, at his glorious best - or pretty near to it.

On a bright, warm and sunny day, with a few puffs of white clouds drifting below a lovely blue sky, Lara, the wonder boy, the super man from Trinidad and Tobago, treated the gathering - an embarrassingly small one, however, to batsmanship of the highest class as he paraded his skill and his strokeplay in a bid to defeat Australia in their extended first match of the second round of the Cricket World Cup.

Unfortunately for the master batsman who stroked 77 runs off 83 deliveries before he fell leg before wicket to left-arm wrist spinner Brad Hogg at 156 for six in the 36th over, for the gathering, and for the West Indies, however, all the other batsmen, including his vice-captain Ramnaresh Sarwan, who fought a good fight for a while, were embarrassing and went down without a fight as Australia blew them away with the utmost ease.

Chasing a victory

Starting the day chasing a victory target of 323 off 50 overs after rain had cut short the previous day's play with Australia, thanks to Matthew Hayden who stroked a magnificent 158, scoring 322 for six off 50 overs, the West Indies batsmen, and particularly so opening batsman Chris Gayle and number four Marlon Samuels, number three Sarwan and number six Dwayne Bravo, batted as if their brains were scrambled by the morning sun as the home team skidded to defeat.

Cornered by the pace trio of Shaun Tait - two for 43 off 7.3 overs, Glenn McGrath - three for 31 off eight, and Nathan Bracken with one for 25 off nine, and bamboozled by Hogg who grabbed three for 56 off his 10 overs, the West Indies, the once mighty Windies, the champions of 1975 and 1979, were skittled for 219 in 45.3 overs as Australia stormed to victory by 103 runs with 4.3 overs to spare.

By the time Lara got to the wicket, the innings was in a spin with the scoreboard reading 20 for three in the 10th over. By the time he got to 50, with the scoreboard reading 114 for five in the 30th over, it was all over bar the shouting. And when, after desperately leading a one-man fight to stop the Aussies, he was cut down in the 36th over, it was, despite a few handsome strokes by Denesh Ramdin, definitely over as Australia chipped to victory in another nine overs.

Chanderpaul was the first to go - leg before wicket for five at 11 for one in fourth over to Tait, and if the left-hander was a bit unfortunate to have umpire Asad Rauf's verdict go against him, not so Gayle and particularly Samuels who departed the scene in McGrath's first two overs.

After batting for 22 deliveries and scoring two runs, Gayle, the big left-hander, attempted to pull McGrath and the ball flew high to mid-on where Shane Watson took a comfortable catch.

That was 16 for two in the eighth over and, after a spanking cover-drive for four, it was 20 for three in the 10th over when Samuels, with his team in trouble, charged the experienced world-class McGrath, swiped at a delivery pitched wide of him and Andrew Symonds at cover, a few yards from the bat, waited an eternity before the ball finally landed into his waiting hands.

At that stage the match as a contest was as good as over and when, after a solid fourth-wicket partnership of 70 with Lara, Sarwan charged Hogg and hit a full toss straight to Ricky Ponting at short mid-wicket to make it 91 for four in the 26th over, when, after a lovely straight drive off McGrath, Bravo charged the man with 563 Test wickets and 364 one-day wickets in his bag and was caught by Ponting at short extra-cover to make it 107 for five in the 29th, it was left to Lara and to Ramdin to prolong the agony.

After the exit of Lara, after the fall of Dwayne Smith - the all-rounder who did not bowl a ball and who batted at number eight, Ramdin, the wicketkeeper who, but for Lara, embarrassed the batsmen, played some delightful strokes while scoring 52 with six fours off 43 deliveries before he cut at Bracken and handed the left-hander his only wicket of the innings.

But for Ramdin and more so Lara, the world record-holder who stroked eight splendid fours and hit one six - a huge hit over long-off off Hogg, it would have been a totally miserable day for the West Indies who, in their bid to finish in the top four of the Super Eights, are one down with five to go.