Cricket: West Indies are bewitched by Warne's wiles

Australia 395 and 196

West Indies 233 and 219

(Australia win by 139 runs)

SHANE WARNE, Australia's apprentice leg-spinner with four wickets in his previous four Test matches, transformed a West Indian charge towards an improbable victory into a calamitous rout by 139 runs on the final day of the second Test here yesterday. He finished the innings with figures of 7 for 52.

Warne broke a rousing second- wicket partnership of 134 between Phil Simmons and Richie Richardson, bowling the West Indies captain 10 minutes before lunch for 52, and mesmerising the remaining batsmen with his sharp turn and skilful variety. He skidded a top-spinner through Richardson's defence with the fourth ball of his ninth over, taking seven of the last nine wickets in 14.4 overs at a cost of 21 runs.

Among them was Simmons who completed his maiden Test century, a chanceless 110, as the West Indies, 32 for 1 at the start, pursued their unlikely winning target of 359 with a volley of glorious strokes which epitomised their spirit of adventure.

Simmons and Richardson made a nonsense of a worn, unpredictable pitch and a vast and sluggish outfield. Rattling along at four runs an over, they drove, cut, hooked and pulled 10 fours in two hours where Australia's batsmen had managed eight in the six and a half hours they had taken over their second innings. Simmons also added two sixes, pulling a full toss from Merv Hughes into the stands 120 yards away and lifting Mike Whitney over extra cover.

Allan Border admitted afterwards to his 'genuine concern' at the astonishing salvo before Warne intervened. Richardson's dismissal came just at the right time. 'Just going to lunch having taken that wicket was really positive for us,' Border said.

The West Indian effort rapidly faded in the afternoon sunshine, eight wickets tumbling for 75 as Warne completed the triumph with his last two wickets off successive balls on the stroke of the scheduled tea interval.

Warne has trimmed nearly 20lb off his figure since his modest debut last season. Referring to him as a 'bit of a good-time lad' Border said he had really 'knuckled down to it' and sought out good advice since. 'The more cricket he plays the more mature he'll become,' Border added. 'He's just got all the goods.'

Last night he was the toast of Australia. Only the wickets of Brian Lara, superbly caught at short leg by David Boon off Whitney in the first hour after lunch and Jimmy Adams, taken at boot height by Mark Taylor at first slip off Craig McDermott broke Warne's sensational sequence.

He was at home whichever end Border employed him. He induced two worthless strokes from Keith Arthurton, who was stumped swinging wildly and Carl Hooper, who top-edged a pull to wide mid- on. He then switched ends and won his long duel with Simmons.

Simmons stood alone. In nine previous Tests and 19 innings his highest score was 38. He passed a century without a single ball beating his bat. McDermott's leg-cutter which passed his edge two runs before his dismissal was the first and, weighed down by the realisation that his sterling efforts were coming to nought, he mistimed an on- drive to be caught at mid-wicket.

His innings of four and a quarter hours included eight fours as well as his two sixes and was fully worthy of the man he has succeeded in the opening position, Gordon Greenidge. In Australia in his role as the Barbados government's tourism promotion officer, Greenidge was watching from the stands.

Simmons's departure drained all fight from the West Indies. Adams followed five overs later and Warne, a Melbourne boy in front of a home crowd of 15,000, settled the issue with the last three wickets and prepared to head for Sydney where the third Test starts on Saturday on a pitch even more favourable to spinners and where the West Indies have been spun to defeat on their last two visits in 1984- 85 and 1988-89.

(Australia won toss)

AUSTRALIA - First Innings 395 (M E Waugh 112, A R Border 110).

WEST INDIES - First Innings 233 (B C Lara 52, K L T Arthurton 71; C J McDermott 4-66).

AUSTRALIA - Second Innings 196 (D R Martyn 67 not out).

WEST INDIES - Second Innings

(Overnight: 32 for 1)

P V Simmons c Boon b Warne 110

R B Richardson b Warne 52

B C Lara c Boon b Whitney 4

K L T Arthurton st Healy b Warne 13

C L Hooper c Whitney b Warne 0

J C Adams c Taylor b McDermott 16

D Williams c M Waugh b Warne 0

I R Bishop c Taylor b Warne 7

C E L Ambrose not out 6

C A Walsh c Hughes b Warne 0

Extras (3b 2lb 1nb) 6

Total 219

Fall (cont): 2-144 3-148 4-165 5-177 6-198 7-206 8- 206 9-219.

Bowling: McDermott 17-6-66-1; Hughes 18-7-41-1; Whitney 10-2-32-1; Warne 23.2-8-52-7; M Waugh 3-0-23-0.

AUSTRALIA WON BY 139 RUNS

Australia lead five-match series 1-0

First Test: Brisbane: Drawn. Third Test: Sydney, 2-6 Jan. Fourth Test: Adelaide: 23-27 Jan. Fifth Test: Perth: 30 Jan-3 Feb

New Zealand beat Pakistan by six wickets in Auckland yesterday to clinch their three-match one- day series 2-1. Pakistan were bowled out for 139 with Willie Watson taking 4 for 27. Martin Crowe led New Zealand's reply with an unbeaten 57.

ONE-DAY INTERNATIONAL (Auckland) Pakistan 139 (47.4 overs, Watson 4-27); New Zealand 140 for 4 (42.4 overs, M Crowe 57no).

New Zealand won by six wickets.

(Photograph omitted)