When the post-mortem on the Australia tour of the Caribbean is concluded after the third Test, one of the positives is sure to be the ability of the team's top-line batsmen to all make a key contribution at some stage.
Left hander Ed Cowan joined the club, a little belatedly, in the second innings as he helped the team towards an imposing 310-run lead.
While West Indies, whose opening pair have just one-half century performance between them, have struggled to find the batting displays to back up their improved bowling, Australia has shown it has a solid collective unit with the bat.
There may not have been a single dominating figure in the top order, but each of the top seven have come up with at least one half-century during the tour.
Left-hander Ed Cowan's' 55, was a timely one given the questions in some quarters about his inability on this tour to get beyond the twenties and thirties.
"I'm satisfied to overcome that hurdle of mid 20s, a nothing score, to get a 50 on what is a bloody challenging wicket," he told reporters.
"Fifty for me feels like a really good contribution and I'm really happy that I feel like I've been improving certain aspects of my game and haven't got the rewards and today I got some reward for a lot of hard work."
Cowan batted with an injured wrist, picked up when he was struck by the ball in a close catching position on Tuesday and faced a surface that was turning sharply and bouncing, particularly from the off-spin of Shane Shillingford.
"Fifty on a wicket like that can be as good as 100. Sure the runs don't show in the scorebook but over 300 to chase is a hell of a lot of runs and I think the contributions from guys have been huge," he said.
Cowan, who made his debut against India last December, is only in his seventh Test but it is clear he had been feeling a little pressure having not passed 50 since he scored 74 in Perth in January.
"I try not to read too much of it but if you're in the Australian cricket team and you're not consistently getting big scores, of course you are going to be under pressure. You don't need to be a genius to work that out," he said.
"The only disappointing aspect is I think guys here on the ground would appreciate how hard batting has been through the series but people, because of the time zone, probably haven't watched a lot of cricket but they click on a link to see the score in the morning and they go '28, oh, Ponting 30, these guys are struggling'.
"Well, it's bloody hard work and you need to see the ball spitting and turning the way it is to appreciate that.
"And if you're just judging people's form by looking at the scorecard, then you're not doing the game full justice."
Reuters
Tags: cricket, sport, dominica, australia First posted April 26, 2012 13:23:11
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