Rain forced match to call off, Windies to chase 323 tomorrow

St Peter's, Antigua, Mar 27: Persistent rain forced a premature end to the opening Super Eight league game between the West Indies and Australia at the Sir Vivian Richards Ground here today.

Umpires called off the match without a single ball being bowled in the West Indies innings after the defending champions had piled up 322 for six in their allotted 50 overs.

The match will resume tomorrow with the West Indies needing to score at close to 6.45 in 50 overs to win and earn full points against Ricky Ponting's team.

Umpires Asad Rauf and Aleem Dar waited till 4 pm local time and made a number of trips out to the ground before taking the decision to call off play for today.

This is the first time in this edition of the World Cup to have spilled over into the reserve day. Even the Bangladesh- Bermuda match at Port of Spain on Sunday, which was interrupted four times by rain, was played to a finish with reduced overs.

A persistent drizzle over the Richards ground here prevented the possibility of a single ball being bowled in the West Indies innings, even though the Duckworth/Lewis chart of revised targets did the rounds.

Duckworth/Lewis system would have come into force if some overs were bowled in West Indian innings.

Earlier, Matthew Hayden cracked his second successive century in the tournament as he smashed a quickfire 143-ball 158 to propel Australia to a commanding total of 322 for 6.

Hayden who had cracked the fastest hundred -- 68-ball 101 in the World Cup against South Africa on March 24 -- took time to settle down and faced 19 balls before he opened his account, but once he got into the groove, the bowlers scurried for cover.

Playing in his 138th one-dayer, the 35-year-old left handed Queenslander was both professional and merciless in his treatment of the Windies bowlers as he scored his ninth ton of his career. He showed no hurry to go after the bowlers, bid his time and once he found his rhythm, the bowlers were sent on the leather hunt. He belted four sixes and 14 fours during his stay at the crease.

West Indies skipper Brian Lara took a calculated risk by putting Australians in after winning the toss as this was the first ever major match at this venue, but the manner in which the defending champions batted showed that there was nothing to fear from in this virgin track.

The home side made an early breakthrough when Daren Powell beat Adam Gilchrist with sheer speed and had him inside-edging for wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin to take neatly. With the ball swerving around, Gilchrist and Hayden began cautiously and Hayden was in fact scoreless when his partner fell in the fifth over.

Gilchrist made seven off nine balls and the team total was 10 for one when he departed after 4.1 overs.

That brought captain Ricky Ponting to the crease and 66 runs came for the second wicket in a shade over 10 overs. It was an indication of the sort of form Ponting is in at the moment. He moved on light feet and hit the ball hard, every boundary being sweetly-timed and exquisitely placed as he took the bowlers on. Ponting was run out by a direct hit when he took on Ramnaresh Sarwan at mid-off. Till then, Ponting, whom Sir Vivian Richards described as a ''batsman with a bat that looks like a door'', had looked in ominous touch, getting to a typically brisk 35 from 36 deliveries, hitting four boundaries and a sweetly-timed six over deep backward square leg off Powell.

It was, in fact, due to a bit of bravado that undid the Aussie skipper as he played the ball straight to the fielder and charged down, gambling on the fact that Sarwan would have just one stump to aim at. The fielder, however, steadied himself before releasing the ball and Ponting was a foot short on the television replays.

Hayden and Clarke then took over the task of keeping the run rate going at just under the six per over mark, with Hayden playing a typically muscular innings. With the fleet-footed Clarke for company, run-making on a cool, cloudy day looked like easy and the both added 98 runs in 16.1 overs before Bravo trapped Clarke leg before wicket. Clarke made 41 off 47 balls which included four hits to the fence.

The home side then had two quick breakthroughs with Samuel getting rid of Symonds (13, 18b, 1x4) when he edged to wicket keeper Ramdin and Australia were 208 for four in 35.5 overs.

Michael Hussey also did not stay at the crease for long as he was clean-bowled by Powell when he was on nine and the defending champions were 234 for five in 40.5 overs.

But, then came the blistering 63-run seventh wicket partnership between Hayden and Watson off 6.2 overs in which the broad-shouldered opener was at his punishing best as he hit Bravo for 19 runs including two huge six and then belted Samuel for a massive six and two boundaries.

Hayden departed in the start of the 48th over when he went to hit out Bravo but miscued the shot and was caught by Samuels at long off. And at that time, Australia score read 297 for six in 47.1 overs.

In the last 2.5 overs, Watson and Hogg added 25 runs for the seventh wicket with the former remaining unbeaten on 33 (26 balls, 3x4, 1x6) and Hogg on five (6 balls).

Powell was the most successful bowler for the hosts, claiming two wickets for 49 runs in seven overs while Powell took two for 53 in ten overs.

UNI