The Hindu : Sport : Kiwis keep West Indies in check

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Friday, Mar 30, 2007
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Kiwis keep West Indies in check

S. Ram Mahesh

— Photo: AFP

COMBINING WELL: Wicketkeeper Brendon McCullum, Daniel Vettori (centre) and Jacob Oram came up with performances that restricted West Indies to a small total.

St. Peter's: Jacob Oram took three wickets with his bullying medium pace to hand New Zealand the reins of the Super Eight match against the West Indies before Shane Bond and Daniel Vettori steered their side to a position of strength.

Oram struck after Chris Gayle and Ramnaresh Sarwan had taken the West Indies to 66 for one. The host was dismissed for 177 here at the Sir Vivian Cricket Grounds on Thursday. New Zealand's bowlers profited from a track that offered movement off the seam through the innings.

Dimension of depth

The playing strip bore little resemblance to the one groundsmen were working on the previous day.

Blanched and flat on Wednesday afternoon, the track on Thursday morning looked like glazed dark marble cake. The mechanised roller smoothing out last-minute wrinkles was reflected on it as were the men marking out the crease: these reflections added a dimension of depth.

Men who've been around likened it to the pitches of shimmer and sheen seen in Sharjah and Jamaica.

The West Indies chose to play the extra batsman, Lendl Simmons, instead of paceman Jerome Taylor after Wednesday's collapse against Australia. Stephen Fleming put the host in. In five overs, two slips became three.

Remarkable change

Chris Gayle lanced at shadows until he gave Shane Bond the two-step, and smeared him over mid-off. Gayle's technique has changed remarkably since his early days. His stance has grown more and more open, following the path traced by Shivnarine Chanderpaul's, though unlike his opening partner, Gayle doesn't yet look blasphemously front-on.

The biggest difference has been his pick up of bat. Where he once tapped it on turf till the last instant, he now suspends it like a precarious drawbridge.

Former Australian captain and coach Bob Simpson frowns on this method made popular by Graham Gooch, reasoning that it robs the batsman of rhythm.

In Gayle's case, the open stance compounds problems, for he invariably slashes across the flight of the ball. As a result, he's vulnerable till his eye is set.

Curiously on Thursday, Gayle switched between both pick-ups. One square-drive off James Franklin was hit old school.

He progressed from a nervous boxer's shuffle to keep his feet moving to hitting Franklin for three successive fours through the off-side: each laced with the power that earned him his reputation.

Gayle lost Chanderpaul early. The crabby left-hander stabbed a catch to Scott Styris at second slip off a Bond delivery that kinked away at pace. Ramnaresh Sarwan had been entombed in strokelessness against Australia.

In Gayle's increasingly comforting presence, he unfurled the odd magnificent Guyanese stroke, the cover drive as Rohan Kanhai once played it.

Great catch

But, having put on 52 with Gayle, Sarwan was undone by a moment of wicketkeeping greatness. "McCullum, you beauty!" screamed a New Zealand fan. One couldn't have said it better.

The delivery from Oram invited the cover drive, but snuck in to take the inside edge. Supremely poised to go either way, McCullum pushed off to his left, his weaker side. He stayed in the air, parallel to the ground, before swooping like a cormorant. He eventually held it behind him. One-handed.

Often keeping against quick-bowlers is dismissed as the Sunday job; it is said, not without reason, that keeping to spin has greater demands.

But McCullum's catch embodied everything world-class keeping should be: strong, low movement driven by vision, reflex, and routine before soft hands take over.

Oram and McCullum combined again to dismiss Marlon Samuels. This was a stereotypical Oram wicket - a lifting delivery from back of a length taking splice, handle or glove en route to the keeper.

The decision wasn't straight-forward, for a combination of events clouded matters. Samuels took his bottom hand off the bat, and a blur of movement preceded the appeal. But, Rudi Koertzen held firm.

Fall of Gayle

Having done the hard work, Gayle fell to leave the West Indies at 81 for four. The left-hander had looked determined to make the most of Peter Fulton's early reprieve.

But, with a big score in his sights, he chopped Oram on to leave Lara and Bravo to rebuild through frenzied, and at times, feckless running.

Brought back, Bond struck off his first ball, forcing Bravo to edge behind. And when McCullum, standing up to Styris, caught Lara — another excellent bit of keeping for Lara swung across the line — and the West Indies was six down for 150, the end was nigh.

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