Cricket: Flailing Lara loses the plot

By RICHARD BOOCK

HAMILTON - It was once said that Brian wasn't the Messiah, he was just a naughty boy - and thousands of West Indian fans might agree with that after New Zealand took an iron grip on the first cricket test yesterday.

Trailing by 28 on the first innings, the West Indies lost their first three second-innings wickets for just a solitary run yesterday and were treading water at 66 for four, a lead of just 38 with six wickets in hand, when rain intervened shortly after lunch.

The top-order collapse was highlighted by the effort of West Indian skipper Brian Lara who, after arriving at the crease with his team two down and still 28 in arrears, attempted an extravagant drive off Dion Nash and was caught at the wicket for one.

In stark contrast to his counterpart Stephen Fleming, who held the top of the New Zealand batting together for 227 minutes on Saturday, Lara has seemed less concerned with occupying the crease and more interested in boundary hitting during this test, and left his team in disarray when he departed in the fifth over.

It's not in question that he is one of, if not the, best batsman in the world.

Yet his approach to this match has contained more than a hint of reckless disregard, particularly in the first innings when he smashed 24 off 20 balls, accelerating like a runaway truck until the end came, almost inevitably.

In the end it was left to opener Adrian Griffith and seasoned left-hander Jimmy Adams to keep the New Zealand bowlers at bay yesterday, though with wicketkeeper Ridley Jacobs the only recognised batsman to come, the West Indies' will be walking a tightrope if play manages to start on time today.

Left to its own devices the match would almost certainly be heading for a result this afternoon, but 61 overs have already been lost because of rain and the barometer is pointing to something less than the full allocation today, despite an earlier starting time of 11.30 am and the addition of another 30 minutes at the end.

So far, however, whatever the match has lost in terms of time it has made up for in terms of interest, with New Zealand's effort with the bat on Saturday setting the scene for a sudden advance with the ball yesterday, and the chance of taking an unlikely lead in the National Bank series.

Unlike the West Indies first innings, there were no century-makers but plenty of useful contributions, with Chris Cairns, Craig McMillan and Fleming all making it past 50, and Nathan Astle to 48, as New Zealand mustered 393 in their first innings.

Cairns, whose 94-ball 80 rescued New Zealand in the fourth test against England at the Oval during the winter, played another belligerent innings of 72, taking the attack to the West Indians immediately after surviving a contentious first-ball run-out decision.

Batsman tend to get carried off against the West Indies rather than carried away, but Cairns appeared to ride his emotions as he featured in a 116-run partnership for the seventh- wicket with McMillan, striking nine fours and two sixes as he changed the course of the test.

He then starred with the ball yesterday, sending back Sherwin Campbell and Shivnarine Chanderpaul in the second and fourth overs, before Nash secured the prize wicket of Lara.

There was time for Ricardo Powell, who was facing a pair on debut after falling to Cairns in the first innings, to achieve the notable distinction of hitting boundaries from his first six scoring shots in test cricket - but when he departed at 32 the tourists were left struggling to save the game.