West Indies v Australia, 2011-12
Tony Cozier
Test matches (3): West Indies 0, Australia 2
One-day internationals (5): West Indies 2, Australia 2
Twenty20 internationals (2): West Indies 1, Australia 1
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Series/Tournaments:
Australia tour of West Indies
Teams:
Australia
| West Indies
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Australia's captain and coach had encouraging words for West Indies after the most competitive contests between the two teams since the start of the millennium. Michael Clarke described the trip as "really hard-fought", and hoped "West Indies get a lot of credit for the way they played". And, after both limited-overs series were shared, Mickey Arthur conceded that the hosts had "gone toe-to-toe with us".
Yet Clarke's most relevant comment came in explaining how, despite all this, Australia retained the Frank Worrell Trophy they had held since 1994-95. This was their seventh series victory over West Indies in that time, to go with a draw in the Caribbean in 1998-99. Clarke felt the key was that his evolving team "just managed to win the tough battles at times that you need to win Test matches - you can't afford to be off for an hour". As they had been during their 2-0 loss in India before Christmas, West Indies were too often "off for an hour" - and more.
The defining session came on the fourth day of the opening Test. Australia were 250 for seven, responding to 449, with all their big guns already silenced; only the wicketkeeper Matthew Wade remained, plus the bowlers - Ryan Harris, Ben Hilfenhaus and Nathan Lyon, none with a Test batting average above 15. Yet over the next two and a half hours the tail comfortably added 121, changing the course of the match and, ultimately, the series. Their resistance allowed the adventurous Clarke to declare 43 behind against clearly deflated rivals. Almost immediately, West Indies were 17 for four; soon they were dismissed for 148. All that now stood between Australia and their eventual triumph was the fading light.
After a rain-spoiled draw at Port-of-Spain, the Bridgetown narrative was repeated in the final Test, in Dominica. Late on the opening day, Australia were tottering again at 169 for seven, and it was left to Wade - playing only because Brad Haddin had returned home to be with his unwell young daughter - to respond with a commanding 103. With Mitchell Starc, the left-arm fast bowler in his only match of the tour, and Hilfenhaus as partners, Wade carried Australia to 328, on another of the spinning pitches that featured throughout. And against West Indies' brittle, inexperienced line-up, that was just about that.
On such surfaces, batting was never straightforward. There were only two hundreds: Wade's first and, almost inevitably, the calm, calculating, age-defying Shivnarine Chanderpaul's 25th; his 346 runs were 127 more than the next man on either side - and 200 ahead of the other eminent veteran, Ricky Ponting. In Dominica, Chanderpaul joined Brian Lara as the second West rankings. In the same game, Ponting ignored Darren Sammy's jibe that the Test might prove his last to move ahead of Rahul Dravid (13,288 runs) and back into second place behind Sachin Tendulkar on the overall list.
Everybody who got a bowl got a wicket - 11 Australians and seven West Indians. Clarke gave his left-arm spin a rare outing in West Indies' second innings in Dominica: it turned out to be his longest spell in 83 Tests, and key to the result. Among his five victims was the entrenched Chanderpaul, to the last ball of the fourth day, just as West Indies were beginning to harbour visions of their record run-chase of 418 in Antigua against Steve Waugh's team nine years earlier.
Both sides' off-spinners thrived. Lyon took time to acclimatise before claiming most wickets for Australia; Shane Shillingford, returning for the first time in over a year after correcting a flawed action, had 14 in two matches, ten of them on his home ground in Roseau, the first such return by a West Indian spinner since Lance Gibbs against England in 1966. Shillingford was immediately appointed Dominica's ambassador for sport by their government, and issued with a diplomatic passport.
Yet undoubtedly the bowler of the series was Kemar Roach. He was relentlessly fast and direct in spite of the unfavourable surfaces, and his 19 wickets came at just under 20 runs each. His dominance over Ponting, which had started in Australia in 2008-09, was extended to five dismissals in six Tests.
Australia's fast-bowling stocks were diminished by injuries that kept Pat Cummins and Mitchell Johnson at home, and restricted Peter Siddle and James Pattinson to one Test apiece. But West Indies were harder hit by the exodus of five players to the IPL after the limited-overs matches. The most telling absentee was the spinner Sunil Narine, who had proved all but unfathomable to the Australians. Narine, not among the board's contracted players, chose to take up the $700,000 on offer from the Kolkata franchise instead of staying on for the Tests. With Twenty20 tournaments mushrooming hither, thither and yon, it is a dilemma increasingly certain to concern West Indies - and world - cricket.
Match reports for
1st ODI: West Indies v Australia at Kingstown, Mar 16, 2012
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Scorecard
2nd ODI: West Indies v Australia at Kingstown, Mar 18, 2012
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Scorecard
3rd ODI: West Indies v Australia at Kingstown, Mar 20, 2012
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Scorecard
4th ODI: West Indies v Australia at Gros Islet, Mar 23, 2012
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Scorecard
5th ODI: West Indies v Australia at Gros Islet, Mar 25, 2012
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Scorecard
1st T20I: West Indies v Australia at Gros Islet, Mar 27, 2012
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Scorecard
2nd T20I: West Indies v Australia at Bridgetown, Mar 30, 2012
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Scorecard
Tour Match: West Indies Cricket Board President's XI v Australians at Cave Hill, Apr 2-4, 2012
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Scorecard
1st Test: West Indies v Australia at Bridgetown, Apr 7-11, 2012
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Scorecard
2nd Test: West Indies v Australia at Port of Spain, Apr 15-19, 2012
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Scorecard
3rd Test: West Indies v Australia at Roseau, Apr 23-27, 2012
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Scorecard
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