Steve Waugh's Australian side set a new world record 12 successive Test wins when they thrashed the West Indies by an innings and 27 runs on the third day of the second Test at Perth's WACA ground. It is the greatest winning sequence in the sport since Test cricket began 123 years ago, beating the 11 victories on the trot by Clive Lloyd's Caribbean team of the mid-1980s. The West Indies, ousted for 196 in the first innings, were skittled for 173 in the second after Australia hammered 396. The end came in front of an ecstatic crowd of 11,057 when Brett Lee trapped veteran tailender Courtney Walsh lbw 19 minutes after tea.
Earlier in a dramatic final over, Lee snared Nixon McLean (11) and Marlon Black for a duck to finish the innings with five for 61. Immediately Walsh was dismissed, Australian players formed in a huddle on the field, congratulating each other. The massive win, following a victory by an innings and 126 runs in the first Test in Brisbane eight days earlier, gives Australia a 2-0 lead and an apparent stranglehold on the five-match series. Australia's remarkable winning sequence under skipper Waugh began in Zimbabwe where they won a one-off match in Harare 14 months ago. This was followed by 3-0 clean sweeps over Pakistan and India in Australia last summer and a 3-0 whitewash of New Zealand. Australia equalled the old record in Brisbane and surpassed it with another irrepressible performance which underlines the side's claims as by far the best in current Test ranks. There was early promise of a stern fight by the West Indies as they resumed with 16 for two.
Opening batsman Daren Ganga and left-hander Wavell Hinds kept out the hungry Australian attack for 44 minutes. Ganga fell to Jason Gillespie for 20 when third slip Matthew Hayden pouched a superb diving catch. But the crucial dismissal of the morning was that of Brian Lara, bowled by leg-spinner Stuart MacGill for 17 as he attempted a vigorous pull through mid-wicket. Lara fell to the rash shot after courageously surviving a ferocious assault by the Australian pace attack, led by Glenn McGrath, the man who dismissed him in his three previous Test failures on this tour. Lara made nought and four in Brisbane and a duck in the first innings in Perth. It was also MacGill who rattled Hinds' stumps on the stroke of lunch to make the tourists a hopeless 95 for five. Hinds, who hit a half century in the first innings, made 41 in almost two hours, with six boundaries. The procession continued after lunch as fast bowler Brett Lee sent back the luckless Ramnaresh Sarwan (1), who now has three runs from four innings in the series. Skipper Jimmy Adams, who finished with an unbeaten 40, and Ridley Jacobs (24) offered stern resistance in a 54-run stand before Jacobs was run out.
Filed by Pat Nugent
