Clarke ends Chanderpaul resistance, Australia eye win
Australia captain Michael Clarke dismissed West Indies stalwart Shivnarine Chanderpaul with the last ball of the day to put his team within sight of victory in the third and final Test on Thursday.
- Agence France-Presse
- Updated: April 27, 2012 08:21 am IST
Australia captain Michael Clarke dismissed West Indies stalwart Shivnarine Chanderpaul with the last ball of the day to put his team within sight of victory in the third and final Test on Thursday.
Clarke trapped Chanderpaul lbw after the 37-year-old, who had earlier become just the 10th player to make 10,000 Test runs, looked like surviving until Friday's final day.
But his dismissal left the home side teetering on 173 for five at stumps, chasing 370 to win and level the series.
It was Clarke's third wicket of the innings but, initially, umpire Tony Hill had turned down the appeal.
Clarke only had the one review left and risked it in the hope of seeing the back of the West Indies anchorman who had faced 122 balls for his 69 - his 58th Test half-century.
Chanderpaul, playing in his 140th Test, had reached the 10,000-run landmark when he went to 14, taking his career Test average above fifty in the process.
Chanderpaul and Darren Bravo had looked comfortable earlier in the session as they built up a 110-run partnership for the fourth wicket which had taken their side from a precarious 45 for three to 155 for four.
Bravo had scored two centuries on the recent tour to India to show that he is adept at batting on dusty, turning wickets.
He had made a patient 45 off 148 balls when he played a loose back foot drive to a Shane Watson delivery and wicket-keeper Matthew Wade dived to his left to take a neat catch.
West Indies, chasing the sixth-highest run target of all time, got off to a miserable start in their second innings.
Their first wicket fell in the seven overs that they faced before lunch.
Opener Adrian Barath had not got off the mark when he clipped a Ben Hilfenhaus delivery off his legs into the air and Ed Cowan dived to his right to take a fine catch in the third over.
Kraigg Brathwaite scored the only two runs on the board before the lunch interval, ending his run of three consecutive scoreless innings.
In the 16th over, Clarke brought himself on to bowl and he had immediate success. Brathwaite, who had moved on to 14, missed a pull shot and umpire Hill gave the lbw decision.
It was a close call and when it was reviewed by the batsman the replays showed the ball just hitting the top of the bails.
The Australian captain struck again a few overs later. Another loose shot, this time from Kieran Powell, saw the ball go between bat and pad to take out leg stump.
Powell was out for 24 and West Indies in real trouble at 45 for three.
That brought Chanderpaul to the crease and the West Indies' top run scorer for the series was soon building a foundation for another long innings.
Australia, who have already retained the Frank Worrell Trophy after winning the first Test and drawing the second, started the day on 200 for six.
Mike Hussey had taken his score to 32 when off-spinner Shane Shillingford found the edge and skipper Darren Sammy took a neat catch around ankle height at first slip.
When Narsingh Deonarine came on, Harris tried to slog his second ball but it took the top edge and went high in the air where Carlton Baugh took it easily in his gloves with the batsman on nine.
Hilfenhaus, on six, then received a brute of a delivery from Shillingford that took a big bounce off the wicket and hit the splice of the bat. Brathwaite, at silly point, snared an excellent one-handed catch.
Just as Kemar Roach achieved in the last Test in Trinidad, Shillingford was able to celebrate a 10-wicket haul in the match, becoming the first West Indian spinner to achieve the feat since Lance Gibbs in 1966.
Roach then came on for his first bowl of the day and, coming around the wicket, beat Starc's bat and clipped the bails after the tail-ender had made 21 as the tourists were bowled out for 259.