Samuels leads good start for Windies

Bridgetown—Part-time spinner Marlon Samuels (4-13) and his more recognised partner Shane Shillingford (3-58) undermined Zimbabwe’s threat of a big score as the West Indies took the upper hand in the first Test match at Kensington Oval here, yesterday. Zimbabwe began promisingly against searing pace bowling but completely lost their way after lunch, a solid 100 for 2 turning into 211 all out. At the close, West Indies had reached 18 for the loss of Kieron Powell and nightwatchman Kemar Roach.

Having battled hard against the onslaught from Roach and Tino Best, Zimbabwe came up short against the off-spin of Shillingford and Samuels. Roach and Best bowled with so much intensity they might have run through Zimbabwe by themselves on a luckier day. But, led by the plucky Tino Mawoyo, Zimbabwe took blows, got beaten, edged and stonewalled their way through the first hour before frittering away hard-earned starts on a largely harmless pitch. Mawoyo started the downfall soon after lunch when he lunged forward to defend a Shillingford off-break that spun and bounced to take the inside edge onto pad and lob to short leg. Brendan Taylor tried to turn a Shannon Gabriel delivery with the angle to leg but it moved away late and flattened his off stump. Minutes before tea, Craig Ervine pushed forward to a straight Samuels delivery and left a fatally big gap between bat and pad.

After trying to rebuild the innings from 158 for 6, Graeme Cremer slashed a wide Samuels delivery to point. Regis Chakabva blocked, ducked and left to plod to 15 off 92 before pushing Shillingford to short leg. All these batsmen promised a lot, and barring Mawoyo to an extent, delivered little. The last ball of Roach's fourth over proved too quick for Sibanda, and he had his leg stump uprooted through the gate. Mawoyo and Hamilton Masakadza were disciplined and it took Roach, returning in the 21st over, to break the growing second-wicket stand, although Samuels' diving effort at gully deserved as much, if not more credit, for getting rid of Masakadza. Mawoyo started opening up as lunch approached, driving confidently off the front foot and even slashing Roach over the slip cordon. Zimbabwe had exceeded expectations with a first-session return of 91 for 2, but were to disappoint soon.

Shillingford found bounce right away, and in his second over after lunch, took out Mawoyo. Gabriel hadn't been able to get the new ball to do much, but started getting some reverse as it got older and surprised Taylor in the first over of his second spell. Malcolm Waller never looked comfortable and was beaten repeatedly by Gabriel before being given lbw trying to paddle Shillingford. Chakabva and Cremer hung around for a while before Samuels ran through the lower order to take his best figures in international cricket. Zimbabwe had two specialist spinners in their XI, and Samuels' and Shillingford's showing would have given them hope of containing West Indies.

But it was the pace and swing of Kyle Jarvis, though, that gave them a couple of early wickets. West Indies had 11 overs to get through. Chris Gayle and Kieran Powell had nearly got through seven of them without any alarms before Jarvis moved one in to catch Powell in front of leg, and the batsman had to walk back after a failed review. That was to have been the last ball of the over, but Jarvis was allowed to bowl a seventh, and trapped nightwatchman Roach plumb in front with a full, away-swinging delivery. CMC
 
  Scoreboard 

West Indies vs Zimbabwe  
ZIMBABWE 1st inns
T Mawoyo c Powell b Shillingford     50
V Sibanda b Roach     12  
H Masakadza c Samuels b Roach     17
B Taylor b Gabriel     26
C Ervine b Samuels     29
M Waller lbw b Shillingford     9
R Chakabva c Powell b Shillingford     15
G Cremer c Bravo b Samuels     25
R Price not out      12
K Jarvis c Powell b Samuels     0
T Chatara c Roach b Samuels     2
Extras (b4, lb10)    14
TOTAL (all out, 76.4 overs)     211
Fall of wickets: 1-17, 2-59, 3-100, 4-110, 5-135, 6-158, 7-196, 8-196, 9-197, 10-211
Bowling: Roach 13-3-31-2, Best 12-3-33-0, Gabriel 14-5-45-1, Sammy 9-5-17-0, Shillingford 22-4-58-3, Samuels 6.4-1-13-4

WEST INDIES 1st inns
C Gayle not out     11
K Powell lbw b Jarvis     5
K Roach lbw b Jarvis     0
DM Bravo not out     0
Extras (w1, nb1)     2
TOTAL (2 wkts; 11 overs)     18
Fall of wickets: 1-8, 2-8
Bowling: Jarvis 6-2-9-2 (w1, nb1), Chatara 4-3-8-0, Cremer 1-0-1-0
Position: West Indies trail by 193 runs
Toss: Zimbabwe
Umpires: R Martinesz, B Oxenford; TV – A Hill