The wheel turned as the wheel so often has in Australia’s Tests the last couple of years: the batters under-delivered, the bowlers made it right. With the team having been bowled out for 180 on the first day of the first Test against West Indies in Barbados, Australia’s quicks turned around and returned the favour, keeping West Indies to 190, the lead to 10, and making the match a one-innings shootout in an often chaotic day. The second Australian batting effort then stuttered to 65-4, before improving the score by stumps to 92, a lead of 82.
Spare yet another thought for Shamar Joseph. In three career outings against Australia, the West Indies pace prodigy has been a bowling Mozart, but he runs towards a slip cordon with more drops than Tiësto. In the first innings after getting Sam Konstas lbw, his notional catchers put down chances from Cameron Green and Usman Khawaja in the space of 10 balls, and Nathan Lyon later in the innings. Second time around was even more galling: tearing in for his first over, hitting an irresistible line with pace, and having Konstas dropped twice in three balls.
After the first day’s play he spoke on television about accepting mistakes. “One thing I learned about Test cricket is patience. Me running in, nicking batsmen off, getting dropped catches – there’s nothing I can do about that. All I need to do is go back to my mark and see if I can do it again.” But that patience must have been tested the second afternoon as he walked back to fine leg, smiling thinly to the heavens, while winning warm applause from the largely Australian crowd in the lower bay of the Worrell, Weekes & Walcott Stand for his ultimately futile effort.
That same stumps interview had seen Joseph detail his plan against Konstas, having noted a susceptibility to the ball nipping in when Australia last played India. It seemed too early in the series to reveal one’s notes, but the warning didn’t help Konstas. Entirely unsure of his second-innings approach, Konstas was beaten repeatedly by the ball moving away, and sporadically walked at the bowler to swish without effect. Five overs after the dropped catches, Joseph finally got his kid, avoiding the need for catchers by cutting one back to bowl him off the edge. Konstas, despite attempting aggression, had made five runs from 38 balls and effectively been out three times to the same bowler along the way.
Khawaja was gone by then, lbw for 15 to the other Joseph, Alzarri. Josh Inglis misjudged a leave to be bowled by Jayden Seales for 12. With a rust-coloured pitch still offering bounce from its increasingly scuffed surface, there has been a sense of the Barbados of old, with the hot breeze pushing towards the nearby beach as the West Indies pace trio worked in tandem, running in with the names of Malcolm Marshall or Joel Garner at their backs.
Australia’s quicks used the surface just as effectively until an early tea. Resuming at 57-4, Brandon King on debut made it to 26 before doing as Inglis would later do, shouldering arms to a ball that angled in to take off stump, Josh Hazlewood getting his second. Roston Chase and Shai Hope put on 67, the second-best partnership of the match so far, Chase as the new captain returning from two years out of contention, Hope re-embracing Test cricket after four years as a white-ball specialist.
Pat Cummins got Chase lbw for 44, Beau Webster found movement at lower pace to have Justin Greaves caught behind for 4 before getting Hope the same way for 48, and while Alzarri Joseph hit Hazlewood for a towering six to put West Indies into the lead on his way to 23 not out, Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon completed the share platter by polishing off the last two wickets.
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It was another contentious day for third umpire Adrian Holdstock, with all the close calls going Australia’s way. Chase was given out despite replays suggesting a deviation from his inside edge, because the soundwave technology didn’t show a spike at the corresponding time. Green was given not out lbw due to an inside edge, even though the soundwave suggested that the ball might have brushed his front pad in line before reaching the bat. After Hope had a low catch ruled out as wicketkeeper the previous day, the catch from Hope’s bat was given despite Alex Carey landing with his glove on the ground first, when the ball might have made contact. Green was also spared by a surprising ball-tracking projection showing the ball soaring over.
With quantities of rum being poured on the trucked-in sand of the party stand, the crowd responses to each close call got increasingly raucous, while the modest numbers of Caribbean voices in attendance were raised at televisions around the ground. They were louder when the reprieves failed to help Green, cutting at extra bounce from Greaves, and a slip catch finally held by Chase. Beau Webster and Travis Head finished unbeaten on 13 and 19 respectively, despite a fierce closing spell from Shamar Joseph that bruised Head’s hand. West Indies have gone hard at Australia this match without luck breaking their way. With the lead as it is, they may yet pull off a surprise if that luck turns on the third day.