Michael Clarke continued his blistering form on the second morning, dashing West Indies' hopes of restricting Australia after they picked up a couple of early wickets. Australia went to lunch at 360 for 5 with Clarke on 85 and Brad Haddin on 33, and the hosts were running out options with a five-man pace attack on a dead, flat pitch. Clarke launched some truly punishing drives as he galloped along at a strike-rate around 70 for much of the session, building on the solid platform set down by Simon Katich and Ricky Ponting on the first day. He leant into his strokes beautifully, timing the ball perfectly and finding gaps where there looked to be none.
His best shot of the day came when he pierced the miniscule hole between the extra cover and the short extra cover with a cracking drive that flew away for four off Daren Powell. Clarke's cover-drives were the prettiest but he also timed his cuts terrifically and scampered through for quick singles that built the frustration for West Indies.
While Clarke was revelling in his role as vice-captain and refreshed after two months away from the game, Haddin was also enjoying his new position as Australia's permanent No. 7. He wanted the runs to keep flowing, matching Clarke with a couple of cover-drives and punishing anything short with pulls, cuts and a willingness to go over the top.
Their 64-run partnership subdued West Indies after they managed two wickets early in the first half of the session; a good result following an opening day on which they only picked up three. Katich had not added to his overnight score of 113 when he got a slightly misdirected inswinger from Jerome Taylor, the movement taking it down leg and as Katich tried to glance he feathered to Denesh Ramdin, who took a good catch moving to his right.
Andrew Symonds also fell to a leg-side caught-behind for 18 after Fidel Edwards pushed him onto the back foot with a couple of short deliveries that found some extra bounce. Symonds tried to flick some easy runs through but the ball ran off the face and Ramdin completed another nifty take, this time moving to his left.
But the leg-side chance that could have meant most to West Indies came in the next over when Clarke, who had 63 at the time, made better contact with a stray Taylor ball and Ramdin fumbled a tough but gettable opportunity. Clarke immediately made West Indies pay with one of his best shots of the day when he walked at Taylor and turned a good ball into half-volley to send a cover-drive rocketing to the boundary. By lunch the miss had already been costly; the remainder of the day will determine just how much Ramdin will regret the dropped chance.
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