West Indies pacemen sink Zimbabwe in Port-of-Spain

If Zimbabwe did not know before, they have now learned the hard way that whenever you have the West Indies on their backs, you need to keep them there.

The visitors were bowled out in just under four hours for 63 — their first total under 100 in 40 Tests.

“What satisfied me most was that we never gave up, even though we were not happy with every performance,” Jimmy Adams, in his first match as West Indies captain, told reporters later.

All the West Indies fast bowlers bent their backs on the hard, easy-paced pitch.

Ambrose, now joint-second leading West Indies bowler with Malcolm Marshall with 376 wickets, and Walsh (2-18) completed very economical opening spells and were finally given the support they needed from young bucks Rose and King (1-11).

“I thought they bowled really well,” Andy Flower, the Zimbabwe captain, said. “They have quality bowlers and I thought they were backed up well by Rose and King.”

After Walsh made the breakthrough by having Neil Johnson caught at square cover in the fourth over of the innings, King and Rose kept up the pressure by sending back Trevor Gripper and Murray Goodwin in the final half-hour before lunch to leave Zimbabwe 40 for three at the interval.

After lunch, Rose bowled with vigour to claim three wickets, principally that of skipper Andy Flower, who made a century in the first innings.

“(On Sunday night) Reon King and I were having a chat and we realised that the two senior fast bowlers were doing all the work and getting all the wickets,” Rose remarked.

“So we decided it was our time to prove to the team and to the public that we can do it as well.”

Flower, driving at a well-pitched delivery, got an inside edge and gave a catch to wicketkeeper Ridley Jacobs off Rose.

When Flower’s brother, Grant, who had anchored the innings with the top score of 26, was bowled to become Walsh’s 430th wicket in 113 Tests, Zimbabwe were 51 for five.

Zimbabwe lost their last five wickets for 12 runs, but the big blow came when Alistair Campbell played a horrible cross-batted stroke at a wide ball from Ambrose and dragged it into his stumps leaving his side 62 for eight.

Earlier, West Indies were bundled out for 147 in their second innings as fast-medium bowler Heath Streak needed just three minutes and six balls to dismiss King. Streak ended with five wickets for 27 runs from 18 overs and match figures of 9-72.

Walsh is now just four short of Kapil Dev’s record of 434 Test victims and will be aiming to pass that mark when the second and final Test of the series begins in Kingston, Jamaica, on Friday.

SCOREBOARD

West Indies: (1st innings) 187
Zimbabwe: (1st innings) 236

West Indies: (2nd innings) Adrian Griffith lbw Streak 0, Sherwin Campbell run out 23, Chris Gayle b Streak 0, Shivnaraine Chanderpaul lbw Streak 49, Jimmy Adams c Murphy b Olonga 27, Wavell Hinds run out (Olonga) 9, Riddley Jacobs lbw Olonga 0, Curtly Ambrose c Johnson b Murphy 1, Franklyn Rose c Andy Flower b Streak 9, Reon King c Andy Flower b Streak 1, Courtney Walsh not out 0. Extras: (b11, lb6, w3, nb8) 28. Total: (all out in 75 overs, 334 mins) 147
Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-0, 3-37, 4-115, 5-115, 6-118, 7-119, 8-142, 9-146

Bowling: Streak 17-8-27-5, Olonga 13-3-28-2, Mbangwa 15-10-15-1, Murphy 15-3-23-1, Johnson 4-0-18-0, Gripper 2-0-6-0, Grant Flower 9-4-13-0

Zimbabwe: (2nd innings) Grant Flower b Walsh 26, Neil Johnson c Adams b Walsh 3, Trevor Gripper lbw King 3, Murray Goodwin c Jacobs b Rose 8, Andy Flower c Jacobs b Rose 5, Alistair Campbell b Ambrose 6, Stuart Carlisle c Jacobs b Rose 3, Heath Streak lbw Rose 0, B Murphy not out 0, Henry Olonga c Chanderpaul b Ambrose 0, Pom Mbangwa b Ambrose 0. Extras: (lb7, nb2) 9. Total: (all out in 47 overs) 63
Fall of wickets: 1-5, 2-20, 3-37, 4-47, 5-51, 6-57, 7-57, 8-62, 9-63

Bowling: Ambrose 11-6-8-3, Walsh 14-8-18-2, King 9-2-11-1, Rose 13-4-19-4