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The one-way traffic continued on the second day of the second West Indies-Australia Test at Jamaica and the match looked to be headed to another early finish in favour of the visitors. You can follow the live scores and blog of the third day of this second Test from 1am AEST (Sunday).
Jerome Taylor was the lone bowler for West Indies who bowled with any rhythm over Australia’s first innings. That translated into what happened over the first one and a half days of the Jamaica Test; the Aussie batsmen had trouble getting him away, lost six wickets to him too but when he was away, they cashed in.
Steven Smith’s good form saw him hit his fifth century in six games on the opening day and he continued from where he had left off. Unfortunately for him, a well-deserved double-century was ended by a superb yorker from, who else but, Taylor.
Still, by then, Smith had done more than his bit. At one stage, it looked like Australia would be restricted to 330 on a pitch that had the ball talking at the tail. But in partnership with Josh Hazlewood – who was promoted to number 10 – Smith added 63 for the ninth wicket to bail them out of potential trouble.
While a score of 399 seems a tad below-par, the Kingston pitch had enough grass on it to keep the bowlers interested till the very end. And that reflected in the manner that Australia bowled too.
Mitchell Starc and Hazlewood made life miserable for the West Indian top-order, with Starc sending back Rajindra Chandrika for a duck. And while Hazlewood shone with the ball yet again, getting three wickets to his name later in the innings, it was Nathan Lyon’s bowling that stood out.
Unlike Veerasammy Permaul, who struggled to get any turn off the pitch, Lyon extract some vicious spin, and after coming on to bowl in just the sixth over of the innings, went on to pick up three scalps.
Interestingly, most of those wickets came off deliveries that didn’t turn too much. Kraigg Brathwaite was bowled when he played inside the line, anticipating it to spin with the ball taking the off. Darren Bravo was adjudged lbw to one that angled back in quicker from round the stumps while Shai Hope outside-edged one to the keeper.
Going into the third day, West Indies are a good 57 runs away from the follow-on mark but on a tough pitch like this Australia will think twice before enforcing it anyway. They will be looking to get these last two West Indian wickets out quickly before batting out the day to set West Indies up for a near-improbable final innings chase.
West Indies’ best chance is to try and bowl Australia out for under 150 and then suddenly bat remarkably well enough to chase down around 400. Without the likes of Brian Lara and Shivnarine Chanderpaul in the line-up, it seems bit of a fantasy for now.
Follow the live scores & blog of this West Indies v Australia 2nd Test match from 1am AEST on Sunday and post your comments in the section below.
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