Mark Waugh answers with his willow

By Andrew Ramsey

MELBOURNE, FEB. 9. Less than 24 hours before he was due to answer cricket's top investigators, Mark Waugh was doing what he knows best and proving he remains one of cricket's elite batsmen.

If the prospect of answering the latest round of allegations relating to dealings with bookmakers was weighing on Waugh's mind, he betrayed no signs of trepidation as he topped his own peerless standards with a stunning one-day century against the hapless West Indies in the final of the one-day series at the MCG on Friday.

Under the gaze of high-ranking cricket officials, who have gathered in Melbourne for this weekend's ICC executive meeting, Waugh's name became the hot topic of conversation over their hospitality box dinner for all the right reasons.

He re-wrote the record books with a blazing innings of 173 off only 148 balls, the highest of his career and the highest by an Australian in the abbreviated form of the game.

It lifted Australia to a clean sweep of the triangular one-day series against the West Indies and Zimbabwe and completed a golden season in which it won five consecutive Tests and 10 out of 10 one-dayers.

Waugh took it upon himself to bring down the curtains on Australia's most successful home summer ever, with a dazzling display which included sixteen 4s and three 6s as he toyed with the spiritless and clueless West Indian attack.

In doing so, he lifted his team to 338 for six, the highest one- day total posted in Australia, surpassing the 337 for seven it made in the corresponding match of last summer against Pakistan at the SCG, which was 39 more than the belatedly gallant West Indies could manage.

To round off the most professionally successful but personally trying summer of his career, Waugh racked up a string of stunning milestones along the way.

His three-hour innings was his best in 230 one-day international appearances surpassing the knocks of 130 he produced against Kenya at Visakhapatnam during the 1996 World Cup and against Sri Lanka in Perth earlier that year. He also bettered his own top Test score of 153 not out against India.

It was also the best by an Australian batsman, eclipsing the 154 his opening partner Adam Gilchrist belted off the Sri Lankan bowlers at the same ground two years earlier. When Waugh reached 66, he became only the fifth player in one-day international history to top 8,000 runs. The others are Indian maestro Sachin Tendulkar (9,899), ex-Indian skipper Mohammad Azharuddin (9,378), West Indian opener Desmond Haynes (8,648) and Sri Lanka's Aravinda de Silva (8,427). His gentle push for a single through cover off Laurie Williams brought up his 17th one-day hundred. Only Tendulkar (27) and Saeed Anwar (19) have scored more.

His first 50 had come off 50 balls as he went stroke for stroke with Ricky Ponting (63 off as many balls) in a stand which yielded 125 for the second wicket. His second 50 came at the more sedate speed of 54 balls as he and Michael Bevan (58 off 51) added 136 off just 104 deliveries, but he exploded into action in the final stages with his last 73 coming off 34 balls with five 4s and three 6s, before he holed out to long-on. Waugh caressed, crashed and finally clubbed his way past David Gower's 158, which was previously the highest one-day score made in Australia.

His deeds all but obliterated the worthy contributions from Ponting and Bevan and in truth was probably wasted against an opponent as impotent as the West Indies.

The tourists also needlessly produced their best opening stand of the series - 54 at a run a ball - before Steve Waugh brought an end to the frivolities by introducing Shane Warne who removed Ricardo Powell (21) and Brian Lara (0) in his opening over.

Belatedly, after such a humiliating tour, several West Indian batsmen decided that throwing the bat around rather than tossing away wickets constituted a more reasonable game plan and for several of them it actually worked.

Wavell Hinds, who with Powell made up the West Indies' fifth opening combination of this one-day series, blasted 60 from 58 balls and Marlon Samuels confirmed his status as the only promising sign to emerge from its three-month nightmare, with an enterprising 63 off 54 balls.

But their 11th defeat from as many outings against Australia - despite mounting a run chase of 299 which was their highest-ever in one-day cricket - was as predictable as the announcement of Mark Waugh as man of the match.

He can only wish Saturday's questioning will be equally academic.

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