A worrying injury to their talented young batsman Wavell Hinds rather took the shine off a stirring victory by West Indies over Glamorgan yesterday. A worrying injury to their talented young batsman Wavell Hinds rather took the shine off a stirring victory by West Indies over Glamorgan yesterday.
The 23-year-old Jamaican took the full force of a shot from Glamorgan’s Keith Newell on his left ankle when fielding at silly point and had to be helped off. Although he later hobbled up the steps of the pavilion to receive the £500 man of the match award for his firstinnings century it must make him doubtful for the first Test against England, which gets under way next Thursday.”There is a slight cause for concern. It is very swollen and he is undergoing treatment now,” said Jimmy Adams, the West Indies captain. “A decision on whether he needs an X-ray will be made in the morning.”The West Indies take on Zimbabwe in a three-day match beginning at Arundel tomorrow and the coach Roger Harper said: “We would like to play that match on a wicket which is more like the ones we will play on in the Test series.”However, Adams felt that the awkwardness of the pitch here added to the testing of his men. “This match showed we had a group of guys who still badly wanted to win.

We are all fully committed to taking WestIndies cricket back to the top. But we have only just started down that road.”There were certainly echoes of their third-Test victory by one wicket over Pakistan which clinched the recent series in the Caribbean. “It was very close,” Adams added, “but we are getting used to close games.”It should not have been though. Glamorgan had emerged in the morning needing just 134 runs to win and all day in which to do it. For the first hour everything went well as Steve James and Matthew Elliott took them to 49.

Then James, the acting captain, was needlessly run out after a mix-up with Elliott.Elliott perished in the same over – the first of Nixon McLean’s five wickets – when he got a leading edge to one that held up on him and presented mid-on with a simple catch. Wayne Law’s departure four overs later followed by that of Mike Powell, to the last ball before lunch, had still not wiped out Glamorgan’s chances of recording a third win over West Indies.Adrian Dale, usual so adept at improvisation, was unable to get going on a pitch which lacked pace and bounce, and the exaggerated caution displayed in particular by Keith Newell, allowed doubts to seep into the minds of the rest of the batsmen.During Newell’s 109 minutes at the crease, in which he scored just 12 runs off 91 balls, he lost three more partners and with them went hopes of a win. West Indies then maintained their stranglehold.The leg-spinner Mahendra Nagasmootoo was particularly impressive, with 24 overs that cost just 27 runs. “You will be hearing a lot more from him before this tour is finished,” said their manager, Ricky Skerritt.McClean, who effectively settled things when he accounted for Robert Croft, the Welsh side’s last realistic hope, then mopped up the tail-enders Alex Wharf and Owen Parkin to deny Glamorgan an £11,000 prize.. Chelsea are believed to be ready to make the first move for Aston Villa’s transfer-seeking captain, Gareth Southgate.