St. Peter's: For a brief while, Brian Lara held out hope.

Australia's bowlers had extracted three West Indies batsmen within the first ten overs on Wednesday to seize control. Lara had then added 71 with Ramnaresh Sarwan to keep the match simmering.

But, the wickets of Sarwan and Dwayne Bravo ran Lara aground. He struck a flagellating six off Hogg's left-arm wrist spin.

The result, however, was certain even before Hogg slipped one past the great left-hander's bat. He had made 77.

Australia won its first Super Eight match, continued from Tuesday, by 103 runs here at the Sir Vivian Richards Cricket Ground. The spill-over into Wednesday meant some equations adjusted while others stayed the same. The West Indies was still chasing.

But, it had to contend with the bother batting first entails an early start on a strip kept fresh by the rain and the covers.

Almost immediately, the significance of Ricky Ponting's innings on Tuesday revealed itself like gold-dust settled at the bottom of a pan.

Nathan Bracken was tight-fisted, his lefty swing and cut starving the openers. His new-ball partner Shaun Tait speared Shivnarine Chanderpaul's pad. Aleem Dar's decision left room for complaint, but it didn't change the fact that the West Indies was 11 for one in the fourth over.

Ponting had walked in at ten for one. He had cracked the game open by counter-attacking: he had bought time for Matthew Hayden to play himself in; he had created space for Hayden to put the ball into.

The West Indies fielders, required by the rules to stay inside the circle in the Power Play overs, had done their best to remain at its very edge.

Matters were different on Wednesday. Chris Gayle and Sarwan appeared shy, painfully self-aware boys.

Gayle agonised over his two for 22 balls. He could stand it no more.

Of his 23rd and Glenn McGrath's second, he endeavoured the kind of flat-batted swat that has brought him relief in the past. It didn't get past the 30-yard circle Shane Watson caught it without drama.

Marlon Samuels got hit, but recovered to drive McGrath through cover. A slower ball had him: slow-motion cameras stationed behind McGrath picked him changing his grip when the delivery was imminent. Samuels didn't. The mis-hit hung in the air long enough for the batsmen to complete two.

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