Victoria on top as West Indies' batting woes worsen

Inspired by Mathew Inness' six-wicket haul, Victoria has finished well on top after the first day of its first-class match against West Indies at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

Bowled out for 167, the West Indians' batting woes continued today. The team scored at a snail's pace all day, accumulating a mere forty-nine and forty-seven runs respectively during the first two sessions. The third session, where they stepped up the pace to a rate of 2.84 runs per over, was better, but is still a far cry from what could be expected from an international team playing against the bottom-ranked domestic side. Especially when the international team has someone like Brian Lara.

Even Lara could not do much today, falling to Test spinner Colin Miller for a painful 19 that lasted fifty-five deliveries. After going to lunch at 1/49, the West Indians promptly lost six batsmen for forty-seven in the second session, including two wickets in two balls off Inness.

Reflecting on the regularity with which his batsmen have fallen to catches behind the wicket (there were four today and seven in last week's match against Western Australia), disappointed vice-captain Sherwin Campbell conceded his team's batting has not been at its best on this tour.

"Maybe they've been balls that we shouldn't have played at, maybe the balls were a bit too wide, maybe we can be a bit more patient," he said. "We've been discussing it but it's something we have to go out there and do in the middle, so that's what we need to work on. You can always say you're going to learn from your mistakes but you've got to keep reminding yourself that you're not going to play at the balls outside the off-stump. I mean, you can do that in here, but when you go out there, you've sort of got to keep reminding yourself. And it's something we've got to focus on and concentrate on daily."

The tourists finally brought up their hundred at the start of the final session, with Ridley Jacobs striking a boundary off Miller. He and Mahendra Nagamootoo then set about building some handy resistance, compiling thirty-eight runs at nearly two and a half runs an over. Considering the team run rate was less than two an over and the highest partnership was the forty-two runs produced by Lara and Campbell, this association went a long way to building a semi-respectable total for the tourists.

The resistance ended when Inness, already responsible for three West Indian wickets, ran in from mid-on to affect a close run out of Jacobs. Coming off eighty-seven deliveries in an hour and forty-nine minutes, Jacobs' 28 was the third highest contribution in the tourists' innings.

But it was Nagamootoo (48 off eighty-seven balls) who served up the strongest fight, battling for an hour and three quarters. Instead of trying to defend everything, the twenty-five year-old went after the bowling a little, striking five boundaries, including one off Miller pulled straight over the bowler's head. That particular over brought the tourists seven runs.

In the end, though, it was the Victorians who enjoyed the last laugh, virtually choking the once-great West Indies. Inness, who led the way with career-best figures of 6/26 off 20.2 overs, was the man who enjoyed himself most, especially when he had Nagamootoo caught by Miller at mid-on to end the visitors' innings.

Having been on a hat-trick earlier in the day, the left arm paceman again snared two wickets in the same over towards the end of the West Indian batting display, clean bowling Nixon McLean (6) with a full toss and then having Matthew Mott take a brilliant diving catch at gully to dismiss Mervyn Dillon (0).

After the day's play, Campbell praised the twenty-two year-old's accuracy. "He bowled steady, bowled the off-stump line and stuck to it, stuck to that line and got the rewards," he said.

But he hopes things will be different from tomorrow.

"Hopefully our batters will get some scores in the second innings to give us some confidence going to the Test. And hopefully our bowlers will get the line and length they want and land them consistently - those are the things we have to work on in this game," Campbell said.

Going into the second day, Victoria is 0/2 after four overs, with Jason Arnberger (1*) and Shawn Craig (0*) at the crease.