Cricket in two moods

Tony Becca, Gleaner Writer

The West Indies tour of Sri Lanka was a disaster. It rained, and rained, and rained but thank God, if nothing else happened, the West Indies benefitted a little from it.

At the start of the tour, the West Indies were expected to lose the three-match series, but by the end of it, after rain had ruined all three matches, the West Indies, by virtue of declaring their innings closed in the first Test and after forcing Sri Lanka to follow-on, although trailing on first innings in the second Test, and by batting through the entire third Test, because of the rain, they were smiling.

First off, although he hardly scored a run after that, including a first-ball zero, Chris Gayle smashed a massive 333 out of 580 for nine declared, and second, their performance, although they did not win a game, saw them moving up the ladder in the ICC ranking to seventh, from eighth, in the standing while Sri Lanka, third at the start, dropped to fifth, although they did not lose a game.

Performances of the tour

For me, however, the performances of the tour were the batting of Darren Bravo and the bowling of Kemar Roach.

Young Bravo, batting at number three, scored 206 runs in four innings with a top score of 80, three times he passed 50, and he did so with a confidence which belied his tender age.

In the absence of Lasith Malinga, and following the retirement of Muttiah Muralitheran, the Sri Lankan bowling attack lacked quality. In Ajantha Mendis, however, they had one bowler of real skill, and the left-handed Darren Bravo played him with an ease which suggested many successful days ahead.

Roach continued to impress. He had shown his skill in Australia before, and he simply reminded that all things being well, he will be running in and bowling them out for a long time.

While Darren Bravo and Roach played well, Shane Shillingford's action was called into question by the umpires, and although this was not a surprise, it seemed unreasonable.

Ever since he first represented the Windward Islands, Shillingford's action has been suspect, as was almost all the off-spinners in the region at that time.

What was surprising about Shillingford is not that he continued to play regional cricket unmolested, and that he played against South Africa without being reported, but that he was called in Sri Lanka, in the hometown of Muralitheran.

While there was little or no cricket in Sri Lanka, there has been plenty in Australia, in the Ashes series.

Australia started well, they dismissed England for 260 in the firs innings of the first Test, they rattled up 481 in their first innings, and when England started their second innings reply, 221 runs behind with over two days to go, Australia seemed on the verge of going one-up.

In one of the great fight backs in the history of cricket, however, England hit back, and before the Test ended, they had amassed 517 for one with captain Andrew Straus scoring 110, Alistair Cook 235 not out, and Kevin Pietersen 135 not out.

In the second Test, Australia batted first, after losing three wickets for two runs in the first 13 deliveries, they were brushed aside for 245, England posted 650 for five declared with Cook scoring 148 and Pietersen 227, and then skittled Australia for 304 in their second innings to win by an innings and 71 runs, and to lead the series 1-0.

Suddenly, England seem invincible, Australia appear ready to fall, and most important, they seem to have no answers to England, especially in their batting.

While their batting of Shane Watson, and now Phil Hughes, Ricky Ponting, Michael Clarke, and Michael Hussey seems capable of putting up a fight, their bowling seems to have gone south with no likelihood of a comeback.

Gone are the days of Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne.

In the first innings of the first Test, Peter Siddle took six wickets, including a hat-trick. That, however, appears so long ago. It is almost forgotten. It is like it never happened.

Since then, Siddle has not taken a wicket. Since then, England have scored 1,167 runs while losing only six wickets, and since then, Australia have been running around trying to find bowlers to limit England's batsmen.

The third Test gets under way in Perth on Thursday. Australia are in a spin, they have called up a left-arm spinner from nowhere and with nothing behind his name, and they have dropped their number six batsman and are likely to replace him with a leg-spinning all-rounder while moving their wicketkeeper up the order.

Desperate times call for desperate action, and Australia, mighty Australia, are suddenly desperate.