Junior Dowie/Staff Photographer
West Indies middle order batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul on the go at Sabina Park yesterday on day two of the first Test against Australia. Chanderpaul will resume today on 25 not out.

Tony Becca, Contributing Editor

There are three kinds of cricket in today's world.For those who do not know, one is Twenty20 - the new craze with its exciting, bat-swinging action from start to finish.

Another is the 50-over form with its explosive action, or its happy hour, towards the end of an innings.

The third is the Test match version - the traditional five-day test of skills and character, the one in which drama and excitement sometimes mingle like twins, and for those to whom Test cricket is the real thing, they should have been at Sabina Park yesterday to witness the second day's play of the first Test match between the West Indies and Australia.

Perfect day

On a day of brilliant sunshine, on a beautiful day with a spotless blue sky above, on a perfect day for cricket and on a dodgy pitch, it was cricket, lovely cricket as the West Indies and Australia, the champions of the world and the number eight in the world, matched skills in the contest between bat and ball and thrilled the fans on a day of close, exciting action and high drama.

At stumps on a day which ended with Australian batsman Andrew Symonds, West Indies fast bowler Fidel Edwards, and Aussie pacer Stuart Clark as the stars among stars, the scoreboard read: Australia 431 with Symonds scoring 70 not out and Edwards pocketing five wickets for 104 runs off 26.5 overs, the West Indies 115 for three with Clark picking up all three for 18 runs off eight overs.

Although the home team is on the run, with three days to go, with Runako Morton still there on 23, with 'Mr Reliable', Shivnarine Chan-derpaul, on 25 and stroking the ball confidently, the promise is that there is more excitement, probably more drama to come.

Dominate proceedings

On Thursday's opening day, Australia, thanks to captain Ricky Ponting's majestic 158, recovered to dominate the proceedings. As far as their batting was concerned, however, yesterday was a different story.

Thanks to Edwards and his pace-bowling colleagues Daren Powell, Dwayne Bravo, and Daren Sammy, to Chanderpaul and Bravo in the field, the West Indies hit back.

Resuming on 301 for four with Brad Hodge on 53 and night watchman Mitchell Johnson on one, Australia, with Symonds and Brad Haddin to come, plus the dangerous Brett Lee, were expected to stroll comfortably past 400 on their way to what would have been an even more challenging 500 runs or so.

In a superb performance, however, Powell and Edwards, and then Sammy and Bravo, cornered the Aussie batsmen, and with the exception of Symonds who, based on the number of appeals that echoed around the ground, had more lives than a cat, cut them down one by one.

In the two hours before lunch, the mighty Australia scored a mere 71 runs off 25 overs and lost three wickets.

In the 80 minutes after lunch before Edwards flattened Stuart MacGill's middle-stump to end the innings, they scored 59 runs off 14.5 overs with Symonds accounting for 52 of them as, with wickets tumbling around him, the long-haired Aussie went for quick runs.

Edged a catch

The first of the Aussies to bite the dust was Hodge who, after a few scintillating strokes, cut once too often, at Edwards, and edged a catch to wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin.

That was 326 for five, and with the West Indies running hot and producing a performance to remember, with the appeals, particularly against Symonds, for leg before wicket ringing around the ground, with Chanderpaul leading the way in the field and bringing off a brilliant diving save in the covers, and with Bravo flying to his right and taking a magnificent two-handed catch when Clark drove Powell towards mid-off, the Australian batsmen came and departed one behind the other.

Going to bat after their bowlers and their fielders had impressed the gathering with their consistency with the ball and their brilliance in the field, the West Indies opening pair, the left-handed Devon Smith and the right-handed Brenton Parchment, started confidently and looked ready for the battle.

Windies slide

Suddenly, however, after Ponting was forced to switch ace fast bowler Lee from the south to the north, after chipping to 47 without loss in the 15th over, the West Indies were sliding.

From a position of promise, they were 68 for three in the 21st over with Smith gone - bowled through the gate for 32 at 47 for one, after stroking four boundaries.

Captain Ramnaresh Sarwan was also gone - caught by wicketkeeper Haddin for seven at 62 for two, after carelessly attempting to uppercut, a short delivery from Clark over the slips to the third-man boundary.

Parchment left for nine when he eased forward to Clark and edged a catch to Haddin.

SCOREBOARD AUSTRALIA