May 1, 2003	Thursday	Safar 28, 1424

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BRIDGETOWN (Barbados), April 30: Glenn McGrath reignites his battle with West Indian batting supremo Brian Lara as the Australians press on after a historic Caribbean series whitewash in the third cricket Test here on Thursday.

McGrath sat out the opening two Test victories tending to his ill wife back in Sydney, but encouraged by an improved diagnosis on her cancer problems the 33-year-old pace spearhead is back for another tilt at Lara.

Australia have already retained the Frank Worrell Trophy following big wins in Guyana and Trinidad, now they are eyeing the prospect of becoming the first visiting team in 73 years of West Indies cricket to complete a series whitewash.

Yet despite Australia’s dominance, Lara, 34 on Friday, has been a thorn in the side of the Australian bowlers on the flat Caribbean pitches, scoring 349 runs at an average of 87.25.

Lara thrilled his Trinidad followers with his first-ever Test century at his home Port-of-Spain ground in the second innings of the second Test last week and continues his batting crusade against the strongest team in world cricket.

Lara has now scored a hundred in Australia’s last five Caribbean Tests and it is with opportune timing that McGrath resumes his rivalry with one of cricket’s foremost batsmen.

McGrath has taken 422 wickets in 91 Tests and a combination of injury and family concerns has prevented him from playing for Australia in their last four Tests — the last two Tests of the home Ashes series with England and the two Tests here.

McGrath has proved Lara’s nemesis, taking the West Indian champion’s wicket 13 times in Tests and their personal battle will be one of the major highlights of the Kensington Oval Test.

“You want to challenge yourself and do things differently and I think you’ll see some interesting fields to Brian Lara in this Test match,” skipper Steve Waugh said on Wednesday.

Waugh tried everything during Lara’s century in Trinidad, stacking the covers with three men and even pushing himself into short mid-off in the hope of a lofted drive.

Lara prevailed and the Australians appeared stuck for answers because he had become less vulnerable since tightening up his technique outside off-stump that brought him undone in Australia more than two years ago.

Australia’s tactics, now that premier strike bowler McGrath is back in the lineup, is likely to involve shorter-pitched bowling to try and make the left-hander uncomfortable at the crease.

“My approach in the remaining matches will be very positive,” Lara said.

“I am very optimistic about our batting in the remaining matches but in the bowling we need to do some work to limit the Australians.

“In the next Test, we will have more options and we should not get too carried away. We are playing against the best team in the world and trying too much could be a problem.”

West Indies fast bowling great Michael Holding believes tearaways Jermaine Lawson and Tino Best must play against the Australians.

Holding said with Australia already holding an unbeatable series lead there was little to gain from denying the 21-year-old bowlers their chance.

“I think we have done very well in the batting department where we have brought in a lot of youngsters and they have shown promise and they have now started to produce,” he said.

“I think we now need to do the same thing with our bowling department, if we are losing with people who have been there for a long time and not showing any improvement, we might as well lose with the youngsters.”

Underlining the West Indian bowlers’ plight is that Australia have only been bowled out once in the series so far and won the Port-of-Spain Test on the strength of their fast-tempo scoring, racking up a total of 814 runs for the loss of just seven wickets.

Waugh has warned the Windies they have no hope of drawing the Bridgetown Test.

“They’re not going to get a draw — they’re going to win or lose,” Waugh said. “Unless it rains it’s not going to be a draw. We’re willing to lose a game to win it.”

Waugh is likely to stick with five bowlers, probably including four pacemen for the first time since February 1992 and wrist-spinner Brad Hogg is the likely man to be left out for McGrath.

Teams:

West Indies (from): Chris Gayle, Devon Smith, Daren Ganga, Brian Lara (captain), Ramnaresh Sarwan, Marlon Samuels, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Ridley Jacobs, Vasbert Drakes, Merv Dillon, Jermaine Lawson, Tino Best, Omari Banks, Carlton Baugh.

Australia (probable): Matthew Hayden, Justin Langer, Ricky Ponting, Darren Lehmann, Steve Waugh (captain), Adam Gilchrist, Andrew Bichel, Brett Lee, Jason Gillespie, Stuart MacGill, Glenn McGrath. Brad Hogg (possible 12th man).

Umpires: David Shepherd (England) and Srinivas Venkataraghavan (India).

Match referee: Mike Procter (South Africa).—AFP