Matthew Hayden salutes the crowd at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium after reaching his century against the West Indies yesterday. - Dellmar photo

Tony Becca, Contributing Editor

ST. JOHN'S, Antigua:

THE WEST Indies got off to an uninspiring start in their hunt for the 2007 World Cup cricket title when their bowlers failed to tame Australia's batsmen at the new and imposing Sir Vivian Richards Stadium here yesterday.

When rain stopped play in the second-round curtain-raiser, the West Indies were about to start their reply to Australia's formidable 322 for six off their allotted 50 overs.

Play continues this morning with the West Indies, led by Christopher Gayle and Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Marlon Samuels, captain Brian Lara, Dwayne Bravo and Dwayne Smith, needing 323 off 50 overs from the likes of pacers Glenn McGrath, Nathan Bracken and Shaun Tait, off-spinning all-rounder Andrew Symonds and from left-arm spinner Brad Hogg to win the match.

Batting first after losing the toss and sent to bat, Australia, powered by their 35-year-old master batsman Matthew Hayden, sped to their fourth successive total of more than 300 and looked set to make it four victories from four starts in the tournament when the rain intervened.

For Hayden, the big left-hander from Queensland who came into the match fresh from a record-breaking century off 66 deliveries against the fancied South Africa, it was, after taking some time to size up the brand new pitch and the bowlers, like playing with boys as he chalked up his ninth one-day century and his third in the World Cup.

As far as its quality is concerned, it was arguably Hayden's best in the Cup. As far as the number of runs is concerned, however, it was definitely the best of the three.

Glorious strokes

After standing around for 17 deliveries before moving off the mark, the opening batsman played some glorious strokes until, well into the happy hour during which anything goes - in the 48th over of the innings - he went at medium-pacer Bravo and was caught by Samuels at long off after stroking 14 fours and smashing four sixes while scoring 158 in an innings that lasted for 216 minutes during which he faced a mere 143 deliveries.

In surpassing Symonds' 143 not out against Pakistan in Johannesburg in 2003, in ticking off Australia's best individual score in the history of the World Cup, Hayden, who lost his usually explosive partner Adam Gilchrist for seven at 10 for one in the fifth over, was awesome - his driving, as usual, out of the top drawer.

With captain Ricky Ponting coming in, driving the ball sweetly and hooking Daren Powell for six after the fast bowler had nicked the inside edge of Gilchrist's bat and wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin had gone low to his right to send the dangerous left-hander back to the pavilion, Hayden came out of his shell and drove fast bowler Jerome Taylor twice to the long-off boundary and Powell to the long-on boundary.

When Ponting drove Taylor into the covers, took off for a single, and was run out for a quick-fire 35 at 76 for two in the 15th over when Sarwan coming in from extra-cover hit the stumps at the bowler's end, Hayden was joined by Michael Clarke and together they posted 98 off 15 overs for the third wicket before Clarke, playing forward defensively, was leg before wicket to Bravo for 41 off 47 deliveries at 174 for three in the 31st over.

After that, but for a breezy 33 not out off 26 deliveries by Shane Watson, it was all Hayden.

On a day when, despite Taylor going for 67 runs off his 10 overs, Corey Collymore for 56 off his 10, and Samuels for 58 off his nine, medium-pacer Dwayne Smith, the man who returned figures of three for 36 off 10 overs in the triumph over Pakistan, surprising and inexplicably did not, for the second match in a row, bowl a single delivery. Hayden preened himself on a nice pitch for batting against bowlers who were no better than ordinary, against fielders who were no better than average and before a crowd which, at around 50 per cent of the stadium's 15,000 capacity, was disappointing for a match between two teams that are numbered among the favourites for the title and with one of them being the home team.

Immediately after Clarke's dismissal, Hayden hit Samuels straight and high for a towering six and then went back and cut the slow bowler for four, drove Powell twice in successive deliveries to the long-off boundary - once over Sarwan's head at mid-off, and once over Sarwan's head at long-off, hit Taylor for a six, a four and another six off successive deliveries, and then before they left the field for a short while due to rain, moved into Samuels and smashed the part-time bowler for two fours and one six off successive deliveries - the six sailing through the air and landing way beyond the boundary at wide long-on.

Australia innings

A. Gilchrist c Ramdin b Powell