MELBOURNE, Australia, CMC:A SIGNIFICANTLY improved effort with the ball failed to compensate for the generosity of the first day, while the continuing epidemic of dropped catches and irresponsible stroke play left the West Indies in an embarrassing struggle on the second day of the three-day match at Junction Oval yesterday.
Replying to the Victorian Bushrangers first innings total of 571, the tourists were precariously poised at 144 for four.
On the evidence so far of this warm-up fixture, the Windies are in danger of putting up even less of a fight in the back-to-back final Tests against Australia in Hobart and Adelaide than they showed in the opening Test last week in Brisbane, which the home team won by the resounding margin of 379 runs.
Nothing typified the infuriating mixture of sublime talent and gross negligence better on day two than Marlon Samuels' innings.
Playing with the eye-catching elegance and supreme authority he displayed in compiling 257 against the Queensland Bulls two weeks earlier at Allan Border Field, Samuels raced to 50 by hoisting leg-spinning all-rounder Cameron White for his second six over extra-cover to reach the milestone.
LAST LAUGH
Yet it was the Bushrangers' captain who had the last laugh when the right-hander attempted to repeat the shot in the same over and Mick Lewis held a good catch running in off the cover boundary.
Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who looks an increasingly disenchanted and distant captain, was left to ensure there were no more setbacks for his team in partnership with Dwayne Smith before bad light and then steady rain brought a halt to the day's play 45 minutes before the scheduled close.
The fifth-wicket pair were set to resume (last night, Caribbean time) and face an uphill task just to avoid the humiliating prospect of being asked to follow-on.
With Victorian coach Greg Shipperd keen to turn the screws on the visitors after they spurned his offer for both sides to limit their first innings to 45 overs each for the sake of producing a result, the home team was expected to make every effort to compound the West Indies woes by forcing them to struggle for survival on a pitch that, perversely, could not have been better for batting.
Samuels' departure for an even 50 off 53 balls with five fours and two sixes in 80 minutes may have been the most galling, but the three wickets that fell before him also bore traces of recklessness in varying degrees.
OUT OF SORTS
Starting their reply 40 minutes into the afternoon session, Chris Gayle looked completely out of sorts, being dropped at first slip off Lewis when on one and then playing an ugly one-handed swish at Allan Wise on 17 to give wicketkeeper Adam Crosthwaite a straightforward catch.
SCOREBOARD
Victoria first innings
L. Mash b Samuels 44
M. Klinger run out (Best) 2
B. Hodge c sub (D. Powell)
b Samuels 177
N. Jewell c Ramdin b Samuels 59
D. Hussey run out (Edwards) 104
C. White c Ramdin b Bravo 63
J. Moss c Ramdin b Bravo 15
A. Crosthwaite c sub (Powell)
b D.R. Smith 36
M. Lewis c Chanderpaul
b D.R. Smith 1
P. Siddle c&b D.R. Smith 12
A. Wise not out 2
Extras (b7, lb8, w12, nb29) 56
Total: (all out, 122.4 overs) 571
Fall: 1-19, 2-127, 3-286, 4-351, 5-482, 6-499, 7-512, 8-517, 9-564, 10-571.
Bowling: Edwards 18-0-87-0 (nb8, w2), Best 26-1-132-0 (nb12, w10), Lawson 12-2-52-0 (nb4), Bravo 22-2-86-2 (nb4), Samuels 29-3-149-3, DR Smith 15.4-3-50-3 (nb1).
West Indies first innings
D.S. Smith c Klinger b Siddle 34
C. Gayle c Crosthwaite b Wise 17
R. Sarwan c Klinger b Lewis 10
M. Samuels c Lewis b White 50
S. Chanderpaul not out 15
D.R. Smith not out 12
Extras (lb1, nb5) 6
Total: (for four wkts, 34 overs) 144
Fall: 1-36, 2-53, 3-68, 4-131.
Bowling: Lewis 8-1-37-1 (nb4), Wise 13-3-30-1, Siddle 6-0-45-1 (nb1), White 4-0-24-1, Moss 3-1-7-0.
