Steve Waugh scores 24th Test ton

Glenn McGrath bowled Wavell Hinds with the second-last ball of the day to prevent a looming West Indies opening century partnership on the third day of the fifth and final Test on Thursday.

Just when the tourists were about to see out stumps at the Sydney Cricket Ground, McGrath struck, Hinds lifting his bat and offering no shot to be bowled for 46.

Up until then the tourists had weathered the Australians' opening onslaught through their new opening pair, Sherwin Campbell and Hinds.

Campbell and Hinds, who combined in a record 147-run first-wicket partnership in the first innings, put on 98 for the first wicket on Thursday.

The West Indies will resume on Friday's fourth day setting their sights on building on their promising start to score 350-plus and put the heat back on Australia in the final innings.

Australia's spin twins, Colin Miller and Stuart MacGill, expected to unravel the tourists' batting on the conducive SCG pitch, had few chances of dislodging the opening pair.

Australian skipper Steve Waugh signalled his intentions when he brought on his blue-rinse offspinner Miller in the second over of the innings in anticipation of immediate turn.

At the close of the third day, the West Indies had whittled away at the 180-run innings deficit to be 98 for one and trail Australia by 82 runs.

Campbell, who bounced back to form with his 79 in the first innings after a dire series, was unbeaten on 45.

Australia prolonged their first innings through lusty hitting by tailenders Miller and Glenn McGrath, who put on 42 runs for the last wicket before McGrath was run out on the throw of Colin Stuart going for a second run.

Miller, with photos of his blue rinse hair splashed across the front pages of the morning papers, crashed two sixes and a boundary in his unbeaten 37 while McGrath chipped in with 13.

Australia, gunning for their 15th successive Test victory and an unprecedented 5-0 series clean sweep, were dismissed for 452 off 135.4 overs about 30 minutes before tea to lead by 180 on the first innings.

It was the Australians' highest innings of the five-Test series and their fifth total above 300.

Adam Gilchrist made the West Indies pay dearly for a fumbled catch by skipper Jimmy Adams facing his first ball. The dashing wicketkeeper-batsman profited from his reprieve blazing away for 87 with nine fours and a six off 124 balls to compound Adams' blunder in the gully off Colin Stuart.

Gilchrist was out a half-hour after lunch with his second Test hundred beckoning when he was snapped up by Brian Lara at slip off Stuart.

Lara sought treatment from the team trainer for split webbing in his hand in taking the stinging catch.

Australian captain Steve Waugh, 82 overnight, completed his century to join Test greats Greg Chappell, Sachin Tendulkar and Viv Richards on 24 Test hundreds behind leader Sunil Gavaskar on 34.

Waugh, who was man-of-the-match for his unbeaten 121 in last week's fourth Melbourne Test, was out for 103 shortly before lunch in bizarre circumstances. He kicked at a wide delivery outside his legstump from spinner Mahendra Nagamootoo only for the ball to ricochet off his left pad and onto his stumps.

Waugh faced 238 balls and batted for 300 minutes. He hit nine fours and a six.

Ricky Ponting lasted nine balls before he was out on his overnight score of 51. Stuart, generating lively pace, trapped him lbw.

Nagamootoo finished with 3-119 off 35 overs while Stuart claimed 2-81 off 23 overs.

World record wicket-taker Courtney Walsh left the ground during the morning session with apparent ankle problems. Walsh, who has taken 493 wickets, was struggling through his overs in the morning session and called for pain-killers at one stage.

Test cricket's leading century-makers
player	nation	centuries	matches	innings	runs	not out	average	highest score
Sunil Gavaskar	(Ind)	34	125	214	10122	16	51.12	236no
Don Bradman	(Aus)	29	52	80	6996	10	99.94	334
Allan Border	(Aus)	27	156	265	11174	44	50.56	205
Gary Sobers	(WIs)	26	93	160	8032	21	57.78	365no
Sachin Tendulkar	(Ind)	24	79	125	6416	13	57.29	217
Stephen Waugh	(Aus)	24	132	209	8684	39	51.08	200
Greg Chappell	(Aus)	24	87	151	7110	19	53.86	247no
Viv Richards	(WIs)	24	121	182	8540	12	50.24	291
Javed Miandad	(Pak)	23	124	189	8832	21	52.57	280no

Scoreboard

West Indies (1st innings): 272 (S.L. Campbell 79, W.W. Hinds 70; S.C.G. MacGill 7-104).

Australia (1st innings): (284 for 4 overnight)
M.J. Slater c Samuels b Nagamootoo 96
M.L. Hayden c Lara b Walsh 3
J.L. Langer c Jacobs b McLean 20
M.E. Waugh run out (Campbell) 22
S.R. Waugh b Nagamootoo 103
R.T. Ponting lbw b Stuart 51
A.C. Gilchrist c Lara b Stuart 87
J.N. Gillespie c Hinds b Nagamootoo 2
C.R. Miller not out 37
S.C. MacGill run out (Jeremy) 1
G.D. McGrath run out (Stuart) 13
Extras (b1, lb5, nb11) 17
Total (all out, 135.4 overs) 452
Fall of wickets: 1-17, 2-55, 3-109, 4-157, 5-289, 6-360, 7-374, 8-408, 9-410
Bowling: Walsh 25-4-74-1 (2nb), Stuart 23-4-81-2 (3nb), Nagamootoo 35-3-119-3, McLean 20-2-81-1 (2nb), Adams 16.4-2-54-0 (4b), Samuels 16-5-37-0

West Indies (2nd innings):

S.L. Campbell not out 45
W.W. Hinds b McGrath 46
Extras (lb6, nb1) 7
Total (for one wkt, 38.5 overs) 98
Bowling: McGrath 8.5-2-26-1, Miller 9-0-22-0, MacGill 15-5-26-0, Gillespie 6-2-18-0 (1nb)
Umpires: Rudi Koertzen (Rsa), Darrell Hair (Aus)

Mail Cricket Editor