Tony Becca, Contributor

The touring Australian cricketers tuned up for the first Test match against the West Indies at Sabina Park starting on Thursday when, after dominating the action and with victory in sight, rain halted play at the Trelawny Multi-Purpose Stadium yesterday and rescued the Jamaica Select X1.

When rain stopped play at 4:28 p.m. with 9.3 overs to go, the scoreboard read Jamaica Select X1 297 and 194, Australians 396 and 65 for one, with Simon Katich on 37 and captain Ricky Ponting on 20.

Resuming at 11 without loss, with captain Brenton Parchment on four, Simon Jackson on one, and trailing by 88, the Jamaicans were cornered on a dusty, wearing pitch. Their batsmen had no answer to Stuart MacGill's big-spinning leg-breaks, to Katich's left-arm back-of-the-hand spin, and then, despite the pitch and its generosity to spin, with captain Parchment sticking to his two pacers, their bowlers proved easy pickings for Australia's batsmen as the tourists moved towards victory before the intervention from above.

A spinner's delight

Bowling from the southern end, MacGill, who joined the action at 62 for one after 22 overs, and who picked up two wickets in his first over, preened himself on the spinner's delight and finished with three wickets for 50 runs off 14 overs, while Katich pocketed the last four while conceding 15 runs off 5.2 overs.

Twenty minutes after the start of the day's play, left-arm pacer Mitchell Johnson rocked the Jamaicans when he removed Parchment for four at 17 for one - the local captain blocking a good-length delivery back to the bowler, and with Jackson batting cautiously and quietly, with Xavier Marshall striking the ball nicely, the Jamaicans moved along promisingly until the arrival of MacGill.

After two good deliveries, the Australian sent Jackson packing for 16 at 63 for two - the left-hander attempting to sweep from outside the off-stump, missed the ball, and was bowled.

Two deliveries later, after hitting the first delivery he received over midwicket for six, Shawn Findlay was on his way back to the pavilion at 69 for three - the left-hander going back to a delivery spinning into him, attempting to clip the ball past leg-slip, and much to his dissatisfaction, going caught by Andrew Symonds at leg-slip.

Thirty-minutes later, at high noon, Marshall's innings came to an end when fast bowler Brett Lee, victim of a Marshall explosive front-foot drive through the covers earlier in the day, trapped the exciting batsman leg before wicket for 31 at 77 for three.

Serious trouble

At that stage, the Jamaicans were in serious trouble but, with Lorenzo Ingram and Donovan Sinclair defending stubbornly, they managed to survive the 30 minutes to lunch without further loss at 100 for four after 37 overs.

In the first over after the interval, however, Sinclair fell leg before wicket to Stuart Clarke for four at 103 for five in the 38th over, after a glorious cover-drive off MacGill, the left-handed Ingram was bowled by MacGill for 18, 112 for six, and at that stage, and despite the presence of first innings centurion Carlton Baugh Jr, the end was in sight.

With Miller getting behind the ball confidently and cutting one from Clark to the backward point boundary, with Baugh following up on his first innings performance and stroking the ball nicely, the Jamaicans battled on, however, until after sharing a seventh-wicket stand of 38 in seven overs with Baugh, Miller, in Katich's first over, stood up and drove carelessly to Brad Hodge in the covers.

Twenty-two minutes, five overs and 18 runs later, Baugh, on 36 and his eyes opening up, went back, spread his legs across the wicket and hit a short delivery, a rank long hop from Katich, straight to MacGill back on the long-on boundary.

That was 168 for eight, the lead was then 69, and the match, for all intents and purposes, was over.