Lee and Bracken bowl Aussies to huge win over West Indies

Brett Lee and Nathan Bracken bowled Australia to one of their biggest victories over the West Indies, winning the first cricket Test by 379 runs with a day to spare at the Gabba here on Sunday.
Lee finished with Test career best figures of five for 30 and Bracken, playing his fourth Test match, claimed four for 48 as Australian routed the Caribbean tourists for 129 off just 49 overs.
Australia declared on their overnight total of 283 for two, leaving the West Indies with a record-breaking task of scoring 509 runs for victory.
But they were nowhere near up to the task and capitulated once their champion batsman Brian Lara fell for 14 not long after lunch on the fourth day.
The West Indies lost their last nine wickets for 76 as they once again collapsed in spectacular fashion. Their first innings score of 210 had left them trailing by a massive 225 runs.
Skipper Ricky Ponting was announced the man-of-the-match for his centuries in both innings.
Just moments after the last West Indian wicket fell when Jermaine Lawson was bowled by Lee, rain began falling which may have kept the game going into a fifth day Monday.
The series heads now to Hobart's Bellerive Oval where the second Test gets under way on November 17.
Lara's miserable run in Australia continued when he was splendidly caught by Matthew Hayden in the gully for 14.
Lara's 69-minute stay ended when he sparred at a swinging Nathan Bracken delivery and dropped his head in resignation as Hayden latched on to a diving two-handed catch.
Since arriving in Australia last month to play for the World XI and the Windies, Lara has scores of 0, 5, 0, 5, 36, 1, 30, 14 - 91 runs at an average of 11.3.
Lara raised his bat to the Gabba crowd as he left the field in acknowledgement that it would be his farewell Test appearance in Brisbane.
The West Indian superstar is just 272 runs away from becoming Test cricket's all-time leading runscorer.
His dismissal triggered a mini-collapse. Skipper Shivnarine Chanderpaul didn't play a shot and was trapped leg before wicket by a Bracken in-swinger for seven and Ramnaresh Sarwan fell next ball, fending a Lee lifter to Adam Gilchrist for 31.
Denesh Ramdin became Lee's third victim, snapped up by Gilchrist for six to expose to the shallow West Indian tail.
Daren Powell was lbw to Bracken for a duck and Fidel Edwards was bowled with the next ball, putting the left-arm seamer on a hat-trick.
But Corey Collymore saw off the threat before he was lbw to Lee for four. Lawson was bowled by Lee for a duck to complete the innings.
Ricky Ponting declared on Australia's overnight total of 283 for two, setting the West Indies the huge target to win the match with two scheduled days left to play.
Lee struck first in the day's eighth over with Shane Warne taking a brilliant catch centimetres off the ground at first slip to dismiss first innings topscorer Devon Smith for three.
Chris Gayle enlivened proceedings, belting Glenn McGrath for two sixes beyond long-off during an over in which he offered the Australian paceman a sharp return catch.
But the languid Gayle fell to medium-pacer Shane Watson in the 18th over as he fended a short-pitched delivery to Warne at first slip for 33.
Watson fell heavily on his left shoulder in preventing a boundary and was taken from the field for scans, putting him in doubt for the second Test starting in Hobart on November 17.
SCOREBOARD
AUSTRALIA (1ST INNINGS): 435 (R. Ponting 149, S. Warne 47, B. Lee 47; C. Collymore 4-72, D. Powell 3-100):
WEST INDIES (1ST INNINGS): 210 (D. Smith 88, D. Ramdin 37 not out; S. Warne 5-48, G. McGrath 4-72):

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Australia (2nd innings): (283 for 2 overnight):

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M. Hussey c Collymore b Gayle                29

M. Hayden c Sarwan b Gayle                  118

R. Ponting not out                          104

M. Clarke not out                            14

Extras: (B-6, LB-3, W-1, NB-8)               18

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Total: (for 2-wkts dec, 66 overs)           283

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Fall of wickets: 1-71, 2-258
Bowling: Edwards 5-0-27-0, Powell 5-1-24-0, Lawson 6-0-47-0 (1w, 7nb), Collymore 11-0-56-0, Gayle 27-4-74-2, Samuels 12-1-46-0 (1nb)

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West Indies (2nd innings):

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C. Gayle C Warne b Watson                    33

D. Smith c Warne b Lee                        3

R. Sarwan c Gilchrist b Lee                  31

B. Lara c Hayden b Bracken                   14

S. Chanderpaul lbw b Bracken                  7

M. Samuels not out                           17

D. Ramdin c Gilchrist b Lee                   6

D. Powell lbw b Bracken                       0

F. Edwards b Bracken                          0

C. Collymore lbw b Lee                        4

J. Lawson b Lee                               1

Extras: (LB-3, NB-10)                        13

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Total: (all out, 49 overs)                  129

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