Shivnarine Chanderpaul received a precautionary brain scan after he was struck on the back of his head off Brett Lee’s bowling to score his 18th Test hundred on the third day of the opening Test between West Indies and Australia on Saturday.
The 33-year-old Chanderpaul was on 86 and trying to evade a sharply rising delivery from Lee, when he received the excruciating blow.
The left-handed West Indies batsman lay immobile on the pitch for several minutes and had to receive medical attention on the field.
Chanderpaul’s wife, Amy, looked on emotionally from the stands, and was seen wiping tears from he eyes before her husband rose a little unsteadily to his feet to continue batting.
Soon after Chanderpaul reached his landmark, when he drove Stuart Clark straight back past for two to earn a standing ovation from the crowd that filled a little over half of the ground.
”He’s gone off to have a precautionary scan to make sure there’s no bad damage,” West coach John Dyson told reporters.
”From what the physio [CJ Clark] has said, it was very good that he was wearing a helmet, which took some of the energy out of the delivery.
”I expect him to take full part on Sunday, but that just depends on the scan. We’re very confident that the scan will show no major damage, and just that there are a lot of runs in there.”
Lee was the first Aussie player to reach Chanderpaul after he went down, and acknowledged he was genuinely concerned.
”You’re always worried,” he said. ”You don’t want to see anyone get hit in the head, simple as that. I’m not a malice person.
”I don’t know if he was unconscious or not, but when I went down to him he was looking straight up and said he couldn’t feel his arms or his feet.
”You might want to scare a batsman or intimidate a batsman to a certain extent which is what is all part of Test cricket, but you don’t want anyone to get hurt, so I was glad that he got up and batted on, and he batted pretty well after that as well.”
Chanderpaul led West Indies to 312, replying to the Aussies’ first innings total of 431, before he was the last man dismissed, following six-and-a half hours at the crease in which time he struck 13 fours and one six from 276 balls. – Sapa-AFP