WEST INDIES v AUSTRALIA 1990-91

Toss: Australia. More positive, and more relaxed, than at any time in the series, Australia gained consolation for their considerable earlier disappointments. The attitude was exemplified by the highest first-day total recorded in a Test in the West Indies, 355 for five off 87 overs. Taylor and Border added 116 off 35 overs, after which Jones and Mark Waugh provided the acceleration, taking advantage of 22 overs of uncomplicated off-spin from Hooper and Richards which yielded 128 runs, half of them coming from four sixes and ten fours. Their stand was worth 187 from 36 overs in 163 minutes when Jones was out, just before the close, for his highest score of the series. By then, Waugh had reached his second Test century, having survived a difficult caught and bowled chance to Richards at 97, and he was still there at the end of the innings after the last five wickets had fallen for 48. His boundaries in his unbeaten 139 from 188 balls were three sixes and eleven fours.

McDermott, bowling fast and straight, created early problems for West Indies, his three wickets including that of Richards for his first 0 in a Test at his home ground. When he returned for a second spell, McDermott also accounted for Haynes, lbw to the second toe-crushing yorker after hitting fifteen fours in a free-scoring innings of 84. With Dujon and Marshall also in a carefree mood, the West Indians avoided the possibility of a follow-on only with their ninth-wicket pair together.

When Australia batted again, Patterson's absence with a leg injury - after one over in which he dismissed the night-watchman, Healy - was the catalyst for an outstanding spell of four wickets for 46 off 21 consecutive overs by Walsh. Mark Taylor was the one batsman who stood between him and a complete breakthrough, and unperturbed by chances at 47 and 59, or the wickets falling around him, he moved on to his seventh Test hundred. He was eighth out after six and a quarter hours, having hit twelve fours in 144 from 281 deliveries. West Indies were left needing 455 to win in just over two days, and as Greenidge, on his 40th birthday, and Haynes put on 76 with a succession of punishing strokes, the possibility of an exciting finish did not appear entirely far-fetched. By lunch on the fourth day, however, both had been run out, Haynes at the non-striker's end off a deflection by Hughes from Greenidge's drive, and no other batsman looked to have the inclination to made a fight of it. Richards's disappointment at West Indies' first defeat in six Tests on the ground was heightened by his second failure in what he had announced would be his final Test in the West Indies. He presented a lobbed catch to mid-wicket off Border after making just 2.

Man of the Match: M. A. Taylor. Man of the Series: R. B. Richardson.

Close of play: First day, Australia 355-5 ( M. E. Waugh 117*, I. A. Healy 1*); Second day, Australia 6-1 ( M. A. Taylor 2*, I. A. Healy 1*); Third day, West Indies 2-0 ( C. G. Greenidge 2*, D. L. Haynes 0*).