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And while it is tempting to think that someone of his class and stature must come good some time the waiting

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And while it is tempting to think that someone of his class and stature must come good some time, the waiting is becoming less comfortable, the wanting ever more keen. Time is running out before the first Test against England at Edgbaston on 15 June. To date he has faced just a dozen balls in his three outings, for two runs."When I took the ball he was still in," a grinning Glamorgan wicketkeeper, Adrian Shaw, said. "Then I spotted that he was toppling over, I waited, then removed the bails It is the second time I have stumped him down the leg side.

The first occasion was when I played for Wales Minor Counties against the 1991 West Indies, maybe there is a little theory in that for England."The pacy Alex Wharf had already removed the two openers Sherwin Campbell (a third consecutive failure for him) and Chris Gayle, both leg before wicket. In came Lara at 40 for 2, neither over-confident nor timorous. He treated Wharf and Croft with caution, but also with some degree of certainty.The sixth ball was fuller, Croft drifting it across the left-hander and in looking to touch it to leg Lara, already well forward, missed the delivery, lost his balance and, thanks to the alacrity of Shaw, his wicket as well.At least Wavell Hinds underlined his ability with an unbeaten hundred - the sixth of the Jamaican's burgeoning career. It was a beautifully constructed, disciplined innings, laced with searing shots, studded with stunning drives through extra cover and fuelled by effortless timing. A truly class act.He did give a sharp chance before he had scored, Matthew Elliott missing him in the slips off Wharf with the ball careering to the boundary for the first of Hinds' 14 boundaries. But he was quite a rarity in that he did not fall victim to Robert Croft, who reaped five victims in the innings, all of them left-handers.

It was significant that it was an off-spinner who prospered when faced with such an abundance of left-handers in the line-up. Croft appeared in the attack after eight overs, no surprise given that the pitch was turning square.Lara and Campbell were not the only ones to fail with the bat. The captain, Jimmy Adams, who sat out the tour opener at Worcester last weekend and Ridley Jacobs, also having his first knock, did not exactly cover themselves with glory. They too fell victim to Croft, as did Nixon McLean and Wayne Phillip.Croft admitted that he was certainly helped by bowling to left-handers, not so difficult given that there are eight in this team and 11 in the party of 17.Of more importance to Croft, though, was the fact that the England selectors were due to meet last night in Bristol to draw up provisional Test and one-day squads for the series against the West Indies."I could not have done more than I did today to put my name forward," Croft said "I do want to play at international level again. I am not one of those who can turn up at county cricket and just tick over day-in, day-out. I want it back."On this showing - he sent down 34 overs unchanged for just 26 runs and there were 19 maidens as well as the five wickets - Croft is very likely to be considered and probably pencilled in, even given that he will not come across as helpful a pitch as this at the highest level.Typically, when Glamorgan started whittling away at the West Indies total, Lara got in on the action, snapping up the wicket of Mike Powell at slip off the leg-spinner Mahendra Nagamootoo. Which only goes to prove that you cannot keep a good man down.LARA'S DODGY DOZENBrian Lara's record on toursince arriving with the West Indies in Britain last week Inns Balls Runs 3 12 2First innings v Worcestershire Ball Bowler outcome 1 Duncan Catterall Blocked 2 Catterall Blocked 3 Catterall Pushed off his legs for single 4 Kabir Ali Tickled down leg side, caught by wicketkeeper RhodesSecond innings 1 Richard Illingworth Pushed off legs for single 2 Stuart Lampitt Fine glance down leg side, caught by Rhodes First innings v Glamorgan 1 Robert Croft Jabbed bat down, ball trickled past First innings v Worcestershire 2 Croft Orthodox forwardFirst innings v Worcestershire 3 Alex Wharf Pushed to leg, no run 4 Wharf Forward defensive 5 Croft Pushed back down track 6 Croft Over-balanced pushing forward, stumpedSOPHIA GARDENS SCOREBOARDVodafone Challenge SeriesCARDIFF (First day of three): Glamorgan trail the West Indies by 132 runs with eight first-innings wickets in handWest Indies won tossWEST INDIES - First Innings Runs 6s 4s Bls MinS L Campbell lbw b Wharf 18 0 2 12 22 C H Gayle lbw b Wharf 17 0 4 38 58 W W Hinds not out 105 0 14 203 253 B C Lara st Shaw b Croft 0 0 0 6 13 *J C Adams lbw b Croft 1 0 0 23 21 R D Jacobs c Elliott b Croft 1 0 0 11 7 M V Nagamootoo lbw b Wharf 22 0 1 67 71 N A M McLean c Elliott b Croft 0 0 0 12 9 ÿW Phillip c Powell b Croft 7 0 0 44 51 R D King lbw b Cosker 2 0 0 29 23 C D Collymore lbw b Cosker 0 0 0 6 5 Extras (b3) 3 Total (75.1 overs) 176Fall: 1-23, 2-40, 3-51, 4-61, 5-63, 6-126, 7-127, 8-163, 9-176.Bowling: O T Parkin 8-2-23-0, A G Wharf 13-4-57-3, R D B Croft 34-19-26-5, D A Cosker 16.1-3-51-2, A Dale 4-0-16-0.GLAMORGAN - First Innings Runs 6s 4s Bls MinM T G Elliott c Phillip b King 9 0 1 29 47 *S P James not out 31 0 4 53 80 M J Powell c Lara b Nagamootoo 2 0 0 12 10 D A Cosker not out 1 0 0 20 19 Extras (lb1) 1 Total (for 2, 19 overs) 44Fall: 1-34, 2-39.To bat: W L Law, A Dale, K Newell, ÿA D Shaw, R D B Croft, A G Wharf, O T Parkin.Bowling: R D King 7-1-18-1, N A M McLean 4-1-17-0, M V Nagamootoo 5-2-4-1, C D Collymore 3-2-4-0.Umpires: D R Shepherd and J F Steele..

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