A triple-wicket maiden from Scott Boland has torn through the West Indies and left Australia on the brink of victory after three days’ play in Adelaide.
Boland, who went wicketless in the first innings for the first time in his short but spectacular Test career, removed Windies captain Kraigg Brathwaite to an edge behind off the first ball of his spell, before then trapping Shamarh Brooks LBW for a second-ball duck.
He rounded out the over by drawing an edge from Jermaine Blackwood, eagerly pouched in the gully by Cameron Green. Having been dreaming of reaching stumps with all 10 second-innings wickets still intact, the tourists were suddenly in danger of failing to bat out the night.
Boland finished the evening with his Test bowling average once again into single figures, and with an extraordinary second-innings average of 4. Despite the imminent returns from injury of captain Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood to take on South Africa, it now seems all but impossible to leave the Victorian out at the Gabba next week.
When Tagenarine Chanderpaul strangled Mitchell Starc down the legside – the Aussies only reviewing optimistically to sum up their good fortune – the Windies were 4/21 and in dire straits. Only a disciplined stand between Devon Thomas (8 not out) and Jason Holder (8 not out) saw them to stumps at 4/38 with no further losses, though the target of 497 runs might as well be four thousand.
Earlier, Australia opted against enforcing the follow-on after Nathan Lyon’s bowling and the West Indies’ calamitous running between the wickets handed them a 297-run lead.
After resuming at 4-102 in reply to Australia’s 7(dec)-511, the Windies lost six wickets in 140 minutes on day three to be all out for 214 at the first break.
Lyon claimed two of the wickets lbw, taking his figures for the innings to 3-57 after overtaking Shane Warne as the leading wicket-taker at the ground on Friday night.
Mitchell Starc (2-48) also bagged two when he had Jason Holder caught behind for a duck, before Roston Chase was the last to fall on the hook shot for 34.
But in reality, the tourists were their own worst enemies as they lost two wickets before a run was added on Saturday afternoon.
Their great hope in Tagenarine Chanderpaul (47) was run out on the fourth ball of the day, when he prodded into space, took off, turned around and was caught short by a Starc direct hit.
That came in a mix-up with nightwatchman Anderson Phillip, who was the Windies’ second top-scorer before also falling victim to a poor piece of running.
After slog-sweeping Lyon for a six and taking the long handle to the spinner down the ground and over the legside, he only had himself to blame when he was the Windies’ eighth to fall.
In his second Test, he hit the ball to short cover, stayed in his crease, took off when the ball trickled past the fielder and was then sent back before Alex Carey took the stumps.
It was the kind of moment that summed up the Windies’ tour, which began in T20 disappointment, a World Cup exit in the preliminary stage and what looms as a 2-0 Frank Worrell Trophy defeat.
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Between the run outs, Lyon took hold.
He ended a 60-run stand between Joshua da Silva (23) and Phillip when he trapped the former lbw, before also getting Alzarri Joseph on the pads for a first-ball duck.
Michael Neser finished with 2-34 after claiming the first two scalps on Friday night.
With the bat, the Aussies were keen for quick runs to set up a bowling stint under the lights, David Warner and Usman Khawaja setting the tone with a brisk 77-run opening stand.
Their fun ended when Warner dragged Chase onto his own stumps for 28, extending his run of failures. Just two balls later, Khawaja followed him back to the sheds when an outside edge was nicely snaffled by da Silva.
Labuschagne’s slap-happy 31 saw him overtake Matthew Hayden for the highest-scoring two-Test series by an Australian batter, his cut to Chase in the gully coming just one run past the legendary opener.
Smith looked unseemly trying to swipe ball after ball into the stands, and while one such heave brought a life when Alzarri Joseph spilled a sitter in the deep, the West Indian would make amends by drawing another skied shot shortly after, this time safely pouched by Thomas.
On a hiding to nothing, Green’s run of low scores continued with a leading edge to cover, and once Carey was bowled for 8, Smith had seen enough to call them in.
He’d given Boland just enough time to dominate.
(with AAP)
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