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Adam Voges became the oldest Test debutant to score a century after he was afforded a lot of support from the lower-order and in turn Australia established a vice-like grip on the match by the end of the second day in Dominica against the West Indies.
You can follow the live scores and blog of the third day of this opening Test from 12am hours AEDT (Saturday).
Australia were ahead at the start of the second day but when they fell to 6/126 in the first session of play, life was beginning to look difficult.
Two of those dismissals, Steven Smith and Shane Watson, were to impatient strokes while Brad Haddin received a delivery that could well have been called the “ball of the century” had it been associated with a much higher profile series.
Voges refused to part with his style though.
He defended willfully, almost like someone had told him every time the ball hit the bat and went to a fielder, a run would be added to his total.
The runs he got through the day, before he finally managed to push on towards the end, were to nudges and dabs and the rare cut that earned him a few singles.
In partnership with Mitchell Johnson, Nathan Lyon and Josh Hazlewood, he added 52, 43 and 94 for three of the final four wickets, which would have been excellent on any pitch. At Windsor Park, with the ball turning square and Devendra Bishoo breathing fire, it was sheer quality.
Bishoo’s finger injury didn’t obviously help, nor did the fact the other West Indian bowlers were below par. The lack of support for Bishoo allowed the lower-order to get away with a lot and by the time West Indies did manage to bowl Australia out, the lead had swollen up to 170. That was probably equivalent to 350 on any other pitch.
West Indies needed to bat out 11 overs on the second day, but lost both their openers off successive deliveries. Going into day three, they are still 145 runs behind Australia and have no Shivnarine Chanderpaul to bail them out of trouble.
Making Australia bat again will obviously be the hosts’ first goal but the more realistic ambition needs to be score at least 350 in their second dig so that to make something of a match out of it.
As things have gone for their batsmen so far, that looks as distant as the Caribbean is from Australia. A third-day finish to this opening Test looks a realistic possibility.
Follow the live scores & blog of this West Indies v Australia 1st Test match from 0000 hours AEDT on Saturday and post your comments in the section below.
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