Sunday, April 15, 2012

Australia vs West Indies: 2nd Test 15-19 April 2012

The landscape for the 2nd test match between the tourists from Australia and the hosts Windies changes to Queen's Park Oval, Trinidad, which gets into play from Sunday 15th April till 19th April 2012 - or may be earlier!!

The tourists showed a remarkable recovery after the hosts put up a formidable target of 449 in the first innings of the first test and then had the courage, resilience and strength to win over an otherwise draw or a lost match.

Today, the hosts have a bigger target infront of them than they had in the first test - they HAVE TO WIN, lest they want to be subdued and humiliated in their own home. The tourists have already routed India when the latter visited Australia recently, and even won the TriNation championship against Sri Lanka after osuting India from it. This has raised their morale manifold and are in a charging mood as they exhibited in the first test and the foresight and decisive ability.

Australian Coach Mickey Arthur on Clarke's declaration decisons said:
"I thought it was a great idea and I sort of just backed him on it - Micheal needs ro all the plaudits fr that becasue it was a brave desicion that worked out for us."
With this let us turn to the 2nsd test that goes underway some hours from now.

Australi played at the Queen's Park oval nine years ago and of the squad only Ponting remains in the team to revisit the same grass again. The tourists could not practice much on the ground as rains came and training was abandoned. But the hosts were lucky to have cmpleted their training before water poured from the skies.

Australia is considering employing to specialist spinners: Nathan Lyon and Beer could be these two. As for the Windies, they would have loved to have Sunil Narine, who hails from the Queens's Park, but his committment with IPL leaves the Widnies abandoned and handicapped. Now instead they would have Shane Shillingford, who last played test cricket in 2010.

The likely opposing teams are:
Australia: 1 Ed Cowan, 2 David Warner, 3 Shane Watson (vice-captain), 4 Ricky Ponting, 5 Michael Clarke (captain), 6 Michael Hussey, 7 Matthew Wade (wicket-keeper), 8 Peter Siddle, 9 Ryan Harris, 10 Ben Hilfenhaus, 11 Nathan Lyon/Michael Beer

West Indies: 1 Adrian Barath, 2 Kraigg Brathwaite, 3 Kirk Edwards (vice-captain), 4 Darren Bravo, 5 Shivnarine Chanderpaul , 6  Narsingh Deonarine, 7 Carlton Baugh (wicket-keeper), 8 Darren Sammy (captain), 9 Kemar Roach, 10 Fidel Edwards, 11 Devendra Bishoo/ Shane Shillingford

Venue: Queen's Park Oval, Port of Spain, Trinidad
Scheduled time: 10:00 Local | 14:00 GMT  

Tags: Cricket, West Indies, Australia, Trinidad, Free Live Streaming, Queen's Park Oval, Port of Spain

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