Windies clean sweep

Press, 4 May 1984, Page 26

Windies clean sweep

NZPA-AP Kingston The West Indies’ third consecutive win against Australia by 10 wickets before lunch on the fourth day of the fifth and final cricket test, completed the largest margin of victory ever over Australia in the 12 series played between the two teams dating back to 1930. After bowling Australia out for 160 in the second innings 37 minutes after the start of play yesterday, the openers Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes comfortably saw their team to victory by scoring the 55 runs needed without being separated.

After the first two tests were drawn, with Australia having to fight desperately to save them, the West Indies turned their superiority into results by winning the third test by 10 wickets, the fourth by an innings and 36 runs, and the fifth test by 10 wickets.

Only once before — when they triumphed 3-1 in 1978 in the Caribbean — had the West Indies won as many as three test matches in a series against Australia. The only occasion they have won as convincingly in any series was when they

defeated India in all five tests in the 1962 series. Australia had no realistic hope of avoiding defeat when play started. With a first innings deficit of 106, they were 7/135.

The visitors were also without opening batsman Steve Smith, unable to bat because of a fractured little finger suffered in the first innings.

Allan Border, Australia’s most effective batsman in the series, fittingly remained undefeated at the end with 60 not out, but his two partners, the fast bowlers Rodney Hogg and John Maguire, did not last long. Hogg scored 14 and was then bowled by the fast bowler Malcolm Marshall. It was Marshall’s twentyfirst wicket in a series dominated by strong West Indies pace bowling. In the next over, Joel Garner, named man of the series, bowled Maguire for 0, his thirty-first wicket in the five tests. The feat is a record by a West Indies bowler in a single series against Australia.

When both teams left the field after Australia’s innings, Gamer and Border reached across and shook

hands, a significant gesture between two men who had fought several epic struggles on the field during the series. Border scored 521 runs during the five tests for an average of 74.42 an innings. No other Australian batsman averaged more than 30. In the five tests, the winners did not lose a single second innings wicket. After the match, Garner was presented with man of the series award and Greenidge was named man of the match for his first innings 127.

Lady Velda Worrell, widow of the former West Indies captain, after whom the trophy is named, presented the Sir Frank Worrell Trophy to West Indies captain Clive Lloyd. First presented for competition between the two teams following the 1960-61 series in Australia, the trophy has now been held by the West Indies since 1978.

Lloyd then presented Australia’s captain Kim Hughes with his West Indies team blazer in a reciprocal gesture after Hughes had handed over his Australian blazer and cap at a dinner on Monday night to mark Lloyd’s 100th test match.