Angus Fraser, born-again Test cricketer with a will of tungsten and the heart of an ox, bowled England to the brink of victory in the second Test yesterday afternoon with three more wickets to add to his historic haul in the first innings. Asked to make 282 to win on a knuckle-rapping pitch that had lost little of its capricious nature, West Indies, by the close of the fourth day had reached 181 for five, still 101 short of victory.
Caribbean hopes were kept alive however by a spirited sixth wicket partnership between Carl Hooper and the diminutive wicketkeeper David Williams who by the time play finished six overs early because of bad light, had taken toll of some shoddy England seam back-up to Fraser, adding 57 to pull West Indies back into the match from 124 for five. The pair will resume this morning on 40 and 36 respectively.
The electronic clock on the scoreboard read 1.43 when Fraser struck the blow that might, when the game is done and dusted, be seen to have put the issue beyond doubt. West Indies would have had no illusions as to the enormity of the job in hand as they set about their chase. Only three times previously in Tests on this ground - when India, famously, made 404 for four to win in 19756, when Pakistan's 341 for nine saw them to a draw in 1987-8, and when Australia's 289 was insufficient to prevent them losing 15 years before that - had the fourth innings produced a higher total.
But this is Laraville and he is home in Trinidad as captain shouldering responsibility where once he had appeared to shun it. If the match could be won, then Lara, it seemed, was the man who would do it.
Lara, in as early as the third over after Sherwin Campbell had been smartly caught by Alec Stewart at second slip had reached 17 when Fraser turned and trampled in for his eighth delivery from the Pavilion End. Slanted across Lara, the batsman played a strangely reticent stroke - half chop, half dab - and the ball, finding the edge, flew straight to Jack Russell. Lara did not even bother to wait for the decision, but walked straight to the cool of the pavilion and the comfort of an ice-pack. Williams shrugged off a series of nasty blows as the pitch misbehaved, to play quite beautifully for his 62, adding 52 for the third wicket with Hooper. However, he was spectacularly caught by John Crawley at shortleg as he turned Fraser firmly off his hip, giving the bowler his second wicket of the innings and his first 10-wicket haul in Tests.
When, in the next over, Phil Tufnell had Shivnarine Chanderpaul caught at extra cover without scoring, and Fraser then followed up by having Jimmy Adams spectacularly caught by Stewart at second slip, West Indies were in deep trouble.
England for their part had been 214 for four overnight but in 81 minutes of steamrollering from Curtly Ambrose, folded to 258 all out. Ambrose, without even bothering to take the second new ball, took five for 15 in 42 balls to finish with five for 52. It has been a good game for the old sweats Ambrose, Walsh and of course Fraser. Only two bowlers - the Indians Kapil Dev and Gupte - and certainly no Englishman has produced a better analysis against West Indies than Fraser's first innnings eight for 53 (he himself held the previous best, achieved in Bridgetown four years ago when, by his own admission, he might have bowled better).
