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Week 22
S	M	T	W	T	F	S
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June 4, 2008

WED

JUN

THE ROCK: CHANDERPAUL

By Devon L Wilson

There are few words on mortal tongue in the game of Cricket to describe Charnderpaul. He is like a "BEDROCK" ever present and irremovable.

Here is What The Great Man Mr. Tony Cozier has to Say!

Even on Chris Gayle's return, the top of the order is unsettled and there remains an over-reliance on Chanderpaul in the middle order, especially when Ramnaresh Sarwan, the rock of the previous series against Sri Lanka, and in the pivotal No.3 spot, reverts to surrendering his wicket with loose strokes, as he did twice in this match.

Dwayne Bravo, as exciting a cricketer as there is in world cricket at present, needs to apply Brian Lara's advice of a couple of years back that he is a batting, more than a bowling, allrounder. More consistent runs are also required from Denesh Ramdin at No.7. He has reached standards behind the stumps to match any contemporary keeper but apart from the new Australian keeper Brad Haddin, Ramdin is the only one of the present lot without a hundred after 26 Tests.

Today he had something to write about once more! For 15 Years Mr. Cozier was kept silent because West Indies were at the bottom of the Barrel he had nothing to write about, or speak of. Today a new West Indies have Amalgamated into a positive outfit.

And that's it, Ponting has called it off with five overs to spare and it's the first drawn Test between these two sides since April 1995. An emotional moment for MacGill who finishes his last Test having bowled well today without taking a wicket. He ends with 209 Test wickets and takes a stump as a souvenir. Now Chanderpaul comes off the pitch, raising his bat as the players form a line to congratulate him on his excellent performance in saving this match, and Sarwan must take some credit also.

A draw is a fair result after Australia were handed the advantage yesterday under a cloud of some questionable umpiring decisions. So, Australia retain the Frank Worrell trophy, but a fighting West Indies will have something to aim for in the third and final Test - victory there would help them level the series. We know that Australia will have at least one change there, with MacGill bowing out, but do join us next week on June 12 to find out what happens in the last game of this interesting series.

Here's Ricky Ponting. "We lost a little bit of time in the game but we had the opportunity today to win the Test match. The partnership [between Sarwan and Chanderpaul] was probably the difference between us winning and the draw, so well done to them."

On Brett Lee, he says: "His spell this morning with the new ball gave us a chance today. I'm, happy with the way our bowlers stuck at it. For our batters to go out yesterday afternoon and set things up was good."

Here's Ramnaresh Sarwan. "Our focus was to take every session as it is. All in all we just wanted to be positive throughout the day." He admits it's very hard to put into words how important Shivnarine Chanderpaul has been for them. "Over the past three years he has been showing his consistency."

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