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If there’s one way to silence a growing band of critics, it’s to come out and perform above expectations from the outset of a Test series.
Jason Holder got his wish to bowl first at Bellerive – after Steve Smith perhaps unsurprisingly elected to bat – with four quicks and a spinner forming a definite strength relative to the rest of their squad.
AUSTRALIA VS WEST INDIES: DAY 1 SCORECARD
AUSTRALIA VS WEST INDIES: DAY 2 LIVE BLOG
And no, the scorecard at the end of Day 1 in Hobart doesn’t make for pretty reading, yet for early periods of play, the Windies’ bowlers put the Australian batsmen under pressure.
There was an amount of surprise before play when left-arm orthodox spinner Jomel Warrican was named ahead of leg-spinner Devendra Bishoo, but in the space of five overs before lunch, Warrican put those doubts to bed.
Getting just enough turn to make the Australian top order take notice, Warrican had David Warner caught behind, tickling one around the corner to wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin, and 13 balls later Smith was caught at slip with an absolute ‘Jaffa’ of a delivery for which the Aussie skipper had no answer.
Warrica bowled 12 overs unchanged either side of lunch, and was well supported in his opening spell by first-change quick Shannon Gabriel – who bowled Joe Burns with an absolute beauty the over before Warrican came on – and Holder himself. Both were able to extract some useful bounce and movement off the seam, with Warner at one stage finding himself in a battle of patience.
Australia got off to a lighting start, racking up nearly seven runs an over for the first hour, as Burns and Warner left a fifty-run partnership unconverted into a century opening stand for the first time as a pairing.
But the wicket of Burns and introduction of Warrican slowed things. Australia could add only 46 in the hour to lunch for the loss of two wickets, as the West Indian bowlers looked to take advantage of some evident and sudden nervousness of the Australian batsmen. With the ball moving a bit, and Warrican finding some turn, Australia’s run rate came right back to 3.5 per over.
Gabriel looked the pick of the quicks on Day 1, and certainly had no issue with finding pace in what was a reasonable Bellerive wicket. While openers Jerome Taylor and Kemar Roach operated in and around the mid-140km/h range, Gabriel was regularly pushing the needle towards 150km/h.
Roach aside, the Windies’ quicks are all blessed with height, but Gabriel has the added benefit of possessing a true fast-bowler’s arse, which pushes him through the crease very nicely indeed. His absence in the last session was as obvious as the mounting score.
Sadly, the hour before lunch, and maybe half an hour after it, were when the West Indies highlights ended, and the opening day in Hobart will be remembered for a couple of Western Australians plundering runs to all corners and a glacially slow over rate.
The latter remains as big an issue for the ICC as sightscreens are for Cricket Australia. It was impossible to escape the irony in the solution for the latest episode being the lowering of a white sheet over the video screen – technology overridden by the very simplicity it replaced.
When the Day 1 scorecard is stumbled upon in the future, one thing will stick out: Adam Voges and Shaun Marsh’s mammoth 317-run stand for the fourth wicket.
It trails only the 352 Michael Clarke and Ricky Ponting set at this ground against Pakistan in 2009-10, and on current form could well be surpassed before drinks in the first session on Day 2.
Voges is in supreme form at the moment, and in raising his century in even time, effectively batted away what little hope the West Indies had in this match. Australia would’ve been a touch nervous walking back out after lunch at 3-121, but within half an hour Voges had reset, and was starting to get away. He only really slowed after drinks in the last session, to ensure Marsh reached his own piece of history.
It’s been a criticism of Marsh that he hadn’t posted a Test century in Australia – he was out for 99 in Melbourne last summer – and it was something he spoke of in the lead-up to this game. He’s now got that monkey off his back, and as I pondered earlier this week, his unbeaten 139 now makes for an interesting discussion when the selectors gather before Boxing Day.
Marsh could not have done anything more asked of him on Day 1, and this was exactly the kind of chanceless innings that he’s always been capable of, but not consistently delivered.
It’s arguable which prediction was more disappointing: the tiny Hobart crowd, or the complete lack of fight from the West Indies once Voges and Marsh got going.
The visitors had shown in those early stages that they were capable of testing the Australian batsmen, but when they most needed to keep the foot on the throat, they took it off and sent back a deep backward point.
After that little glimpse of promise, the crushing reality came to be. And it’s hard to see anything other than a very tough couple of weeks ahead from this once proud and formidable cricket superpower.