NORTH SOUND, June 3: Most quick bowlers love a shiny, hard new ball in their hands but Brett Lee showed on Monday with a superb spell of five wickets in 18 balls that a battered old one can also be a deadly weapon.

The Australian ripped through the West Indies batting order with a virtually unplayable spell featuring conventional and reverse swing, giving the touring side a good chance of winning the second Test.

“I do think it is definitely the best spell I have bowled with the old ball. It’s probably the most I have ever moved a ball. And it’s gone late too,” Lee told reporters.

“There are days when it just clicks. And those moments, those six overs are the reason why I play Test cricket.

“They always talk about getting into a groove and getting into the right mindset and getting in to a part in your spell when it all happens for you.

“It happened easily, I felt like I was running in I wasn’t trying to bowl the ball too fast, the ball came out perfect,” he said.

Lee usually swings the new ball away from right-handers and has an effective bouncer but on a flat wicket that has offered nothing to seamers the old ball was far more dangerous, shiny on one side and rough on the other.

“The conditions were perfect, when I looked at the ball it was spot on, scuffed-up on one side – the boys looked after the ball on one side just perfectly,” Lee said.

“There were a couple of times it got over the fence and got onto the gravel and that kind of thing which definitely helps and you are playing on a surface too which is very abrasive, the conditions were definitely in our favour for the ball to swing the other way.

“To pick up five wickets is always a bonus but for me it is always about trying to get that breakthrough and hopefully try and get your Test match team into a position where we can win the Test match and hopefully we have done a pretty good job there,” Lee added.—Reuters