It’s either the sign of a champion team that they keep winning but Australia are in a form slump despite Travis Head’s ton and Josh Hazlewood’s sizzling spell putting them on the verge of victory over the West Indies.
Whether it’s a post-Ashes hangover, the cumulative effects of the World Cup campaign at the end of a busy year or just a collective lull, the Australians have been below their best this home summer.
That is despite winning all three Tests against Pakistan and eventually getting on top of a spirited Windies side in Adelaide by stumps on the second day to have them 6-73, still needing 22 more runs to make Australia bat again.
The Australian batting unit is not firing on all cylinders and while Pat Cummins is in a purple patch and Hazlewood now has eight wickets in this match, the bowlers have not quite been at their collective best and if Pakistan had held their chances in the slips cordon better, they could have stolen a Test or two from the world champions.
Australia’s top-order rejig continued to flounder on day two against the Windies with Cameron Green departing for just 14 in his first crack at the No.4 spot after converted opener Steve Smith went for 12 the previous afternoon.
When Mitchell Marsh fell for a circumspect five, the Aussies were in a spot of bother at 5-126 in reply to the West Indies’ total of 188 before Head’s trademark counter-attack steered the hosts to 283 and a first-innings lead of 95.
Shamar Joseph continued his amazing start to his Test career by bagging 5-94, adding the scalps of Green, Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon to Smith and Marnus Labuschagne.
He bowed down onto the Adelaide Oval turf after bowling Lyon early in the final session to become the 10th West Indies debutant to notch a five-wicket haul.
Head’s innings saved Australia’s blushes – blasting 119 from 134 balls with three sixes complementing a dozen fours at his home ground.
He raced from 70 to his final score in just 34 deliveries as he powered to three figures at Adelaide for the second time in successive summers.
“It was pretty rough going, but that reflects the wicket,” Head said. “But I am really happy with the way that I was able to fight through that … I felt like I took my chances when I could.
“Batting five it’s like, if we’re flying it’s probably my role is a bit different where I’d probably be more aggressive and take it on. So you may not see bigger scores.
“But when we’re in positions that we are in, I’ve got to bat a bit longer. I’m happy for it to keep going.”
The 30-year-old only scored one red-ball ton in 2023 – in the World Test Championship final win over India at The Oval in June – and had struggled in the three-match series against Pakistan, tallying just 81 runs at 16.2.
His seventh Test century also took him past 3000 runs in his 46th match.
He came to the crease early in the morning session when Green nicked off to Joseph after it looked like he was hitting his stride with a couple of boundaries.
Usman Khawaja progressed from his overnight score of 30 to 45 before he sparred at a wide ball from Justin Greaves and Alick Athanaze made no mistake with an athletic grab in the slips.
It was the fourth successive time this summer that Khawaja has departed in the 40s in the first innings.
Marsh didn’t look comfortable and after edging the ball low a few times, the Windies pulled off a clever ploy by putting Greaves a few steps before the rest of the slips cordon. And helmet and all, he managed to grasp the next chance that came his way.
Alex Carey helped steady the ship with Head but went no further than 15 after he became Greaves’ second Test wicket with a snick to keeper Joshua da Silva.
Starc (10), Cummins (12) and Lyon (24) smacked some handy runs as the tail wagged to consolidate Head’s onslaught.
(Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images)
Tag Chanderpaul fell to the commentator’s curse provided by James Brayshaw on Seven, nicking off to Hazlewood first ball seconds after he was described as a player who “puts a high price on his wicket”.
To be fair to the left-handed opener, he didn’t do much wrong as he played what looked like a solid forward defence but Hazlewood’s angled delivery decked away enough to clip the outside edge on the way through to Carey’s gloves.
The Windies slumped to 2-1 when Head backed up his explosive batting with a superb catch at bat pad when Kraigg Brathwaite clipped Hazlewood off his pads for what he thought would be a single to leg.
When Athanaza gloved a short ball from the same bowler without scoring, Hazlewood had 3-0 and the Windies only had seven on the board.
He had the extraordinary figures of 4-2 when Kavem Hodge edged the NSW seamer to Smith’s perennially safe hands at second slip.
The procession continued when Green tempted Kirk McKenzie into one too many expansive drives on 26 which found Labuschagne at short cover to make it 5-40 as newspaper sub-editors across the country dusted off the old “Calypso collapso” headlines.
Greaves and da Silva (17 not out) defied the Australians in the final hour with a 33-run stand to at least take a day-two finish out of the equation but the all-rounder was dismissed on stumps by a Lyon off break from around the wicket.
Given not out, Lyon called for the review which showed it was pitching just in line with leg stump and straightening to send Greaves on his way for 24.
Cummins was given the option of extending play for another half-hour to potentially snare the final four wickets to wrap up the match on Thursday but he opted to put his feet up overnight.
Australia will go on to close out the victory in this Test, likely inside the first session on Friday, but when you compare the playing talent of the two sides, particularly with the lowly Windies missing a couple of their best players, there is no hiding from the fact that there is still a lot for the home side to improve upon.
No one player is in a major slump, it’s just that the likes of Smith, Labuschagne and Green are not anywhere near their best, and apart from Cummins and Marsh, everyone else has had their moments but overall appeared to be a little flat this home summer.
This kind of form is enough to beat the teams at the lower end of the world rankings, but they will need to perform much better on the upcoming two-match tour of New Zealand, not to mention next summer’s five-Test showdown with India.
Tufanooo
Roar Rookie
CtD It should be the only measure of a great side tbh.
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
Brisbane and Adelaide have been the best two for 30 years and probably shading Perth
Jeff
Roar Rookie
"It is what non achievers always do." Actually, non achievers don't look at their deficiencies and consider how they could improve.
Jeff
Roar Rookie
Certainly agree it throws up more even contests - or perhaps less predictable outcomes (or match performances). Feels like a long time since we've seen teams' batting line ups regularly have the majority of their top 7 getting good scores. Seems like it is two or three at any one time, with the rest going cheaply.
Jeff
Roar Rookie
Fair observation Paul.
Jeff
Roar Rookie
I guess the difference between a good cricket wicket and a not so good one, is where the pitch offers assistance to the bowlers when they bowl well vs the pitch itself being the cause of dismissals. Post-match seems like the Adelaide Oval curator wasn't particularly happy with the wicket.
Jeff
Roar Rookie
He's a good ground fielder too.
Christo the Daddyo
Roar Rookie
Great sides can win consistently outside of their own country.
Tufanooo
Roar Rookie
I'd also point out that India were handed a bit of a lesson on neutral territory in the WTC final. So why are they now the favourites to beat Australia in Australia?
Ace
Roar Rookie
Great catch. Point 4 of a second to take it.
Ace
Roar Rookie
Quite so Christo. It's been more individual efforts rather than a solid team effort
Ace
Roar Rookie
Blink you were doing ok until your last sentence but in a blink of an eye you showed your true colours
Ace
Roar Rookie
Well , one point by Paul is very true Benno. Paul pointed out the form shown by some of the top order is very much under par. It seems lately that an individual has to pull the team out of a tight spot rather than all round contributions This also is my humble opinion
Christo the Daddyo
Roar Rookie
Perhaps a better way of looking at it is to rate each player against their own past performances. So using Smith as an example, averaging around 40 is well down on his career average of around 60.
matth
Roar Guru
I think we are getting to the point of assessing whether Green is the best gully fielder we've ever had. It's a great string to his bow.
matth
Roar Guru
I think the wickets are more sporting as well, which is a good thing. If you think about it, of the truly great sides you have the Australians of the 1990's to 2005, the Windies of the 1980's, the Australian's of 1948 and the Australians in the early 1920's. There are usually significant periods where there are no great sides, just good ones.
matth
Roar Guru
Very true
matth
Roar Guru
Sounds like we are in a period where there is no all time great side, but a number of okay to good sides. It actually makes for interesting cricket.
matth
Roar Guru
"However if we were playing India or even England at the moment we would be in very real contests." Almost as if other teams can be rather good at test cricket too.
matth
Roar Guru
Most innings in test cricket, except where the pitches are flat, see most batsmen failing and one or two succeeding, leading to a score of 300 or so. Even the best cricketers actually fail more than they succeed. Head has two centuries in the last 6 months. Khawaja is getting into the forties every single innings, when most openers fail around 60% of the time. Smith's apparently terrible form was an average for 2023 of around 40, which is solid enough that most other players would be happy. Hazlewood has been solid and now the balls beating the bat are being nicked. Starc is his usual self - expensive but always seems to pick up a wicket or two. So while every batsman isn't scoring 50 plus each innings and every bowler is not taking a five four each time, it's actually been reasonably solid. If you think about it, if we were going as busted as everyone seems to think, we'd actually be losing test matches all over the place.