After an aborted attempt six months ago, Stuart MacGill finally appears set to emerge from the shadow of Shane Warne for one final fling in Test cricket.

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A seven-wicket match haul in Australia’s opening game of their West Indies tour confirmed the 37-year-old leg spinner was over the wrist and knee injuries that threatened to end his career during the summer, and poised to wreak havoc during an expected one-sided three-match series beginning Thursday at Sabina Park.

“I thought he was great, I thought Stuey just got better and better as the game went on,” said coach Tim Nielsen after MacGill today added figures of 3-50 to his four-wicket haul from the first innings of Australia’s rain-shortened three-day match against Jamaica XI.

“It showed with a bit of work in match conditions that he is headed in the right direction, and that is fantastic for us.”

MacGill finished with a match haul of 7-129 to be the pick of the Australian bowlers on a slow wicket.

But as good as his figures were at the Trelawny Multi-Purpose Stadium, it was more the manner of his dismissals that most pleased Nielsen, with MacGill clean bowling two left-handed batsman with vicious turning leg breaks today.

With several left handers in the Windies top order – and the Sabina Park wicket usually conducive to sharp turn – it was a promising sign for 42-Test veteran, who only six months ago had many questioning whether he would ever return to the national team after undergoing wrist surgery to correct carpal tunnel syndrome.

That surgery followed a poor, injury-hampered, performance in Australia’s two-Test series against Sri Lanka in November – Australia’s first series since the retirement of Warne.

But with the retirement of chinaman bowler Brad Hogg in March, MacGill is again the clear spin candidate for the Australian team, and appears set to make the most of finally being rated No.1 after more than a decade playing second fiddle to Warne.

Rain ultimately thwarted Australia from making a winning start to their tour with Ricky Ponting’s side just 31 runs short of victory when bad weather forced play to end some 90 minutes from the scheduled close on the final day against Jamaica.

Simon Katich capped off a man of the match performance for Australia by scoring an unbeaten 37 in the second innings after top scoring with 97 in the first and taking six wickets with his part-time spinners, including 4-15 today in cleaning up the Jamaican tail.

Katich will end a two-and-a-half year Test absence when he replaces Michael Clarke for the first Test, with Clarke scheduled to fly out of Sydney on Wednesday after remaining in Australia to support fiancee Lara Bingle following the death of her father.

Jamaica were dismissed for 194 in their second innings, with Australia 1-65 chasing 96 to win when the rain came.

Despite the disappointment of being unable to close out the game, Nielsen said the tour match was close to perfect preparation for the opening Test.

“From a workout point of view and from a preparation point of view, it went almost as good as we could have planned,” he said.

Having been concerned solely with their own game the last few weeks, Nielsen said the team would start shifting some their focus towards studying the Windies this week.

The home side arrived in Kingston today with Indian Premier League players Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Dwayne Bravo and Ramnaresh Sarwan – who will captain the side in the absence of the injured Chris Gayle (groin) – expected to train with the rest of the 14-man squad for the first time tomorrow.

© AAP 2012

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