Bridgetown : West Indies held the upper hand at the end of the third day of the first Test here on Monday as they reduced Australia to 248 for 5, still trailing by 201 runs.
Only a solid 73 by captain Michael Clarke and a typically stubborn unbeaten 47 by veteran Mike Hussey all but ensured that the Aussies would avoid the follow-on.
Clarke was disappointed with his team’s performance in the match so far.
“We have no excuses for not bowling and fielding as well as we would have liked day one, day two and certainly no excuses for being five down on that wicket today,” he said.
However, he was still cofident the Australians could win the match.
“I think we’re going to have to bowl better than what we did in the first innings and we’re going to have to try to make as many runs as we can in this first innings to see how close we are to them. I certainly think we can still win the Test match from here.”
His West Indian counterpart Darren Sammy was by contrast delighted with his team.
“The team played well. The bowlers supported each other,” he said. “We’re quite happy with the way the day went.”
Sammy snapped up the first wicket to fall as having added only one run to his overnight score of 13, Ed Cowan was drawn into a shot to a ball just outside off stump and edged through to the keeper.
Shane Watson, batting for the first time in a Test at number three, was fortunate to survive twice when he had scored five.
Sammy’s persevering line just outside off stump worked again when David Warner, having scored 42 off 55 balls, played at a ball without much foot movement and Darren Bravo took the catch at second slip. (AFP)
