Australia suffered a dramatic collapse of 7 for 68 under the new Sabina Park floodlights as West Indies’ quicks enjoyed the conditions with Jayden Seales, Shamar Joseph and Justin Greaves sharing all ten before Mitchell Starc struck back with an early inroad in his 100th Test.
Starc, who had earlier collected a duck, went close on numerous occasions before removing debutant Kevlon Anderson, who inside-edged onto the stumps attempting a drive. West Indies had been forced into a makeshift opening pair of Anderson and Brandon King after Mikyle Louis, who had been recalled in place of the struggling Kraigg Brathwaite, the match after he reached 100 Tests, and John Campbell picked up injuries in the field.
Losing just one wicket in 45 minutes against this Australia attack with a pink ball under lights could be considered a success, with King and Roston Chase doing well to see out the day. As has been the case in the first two Tests, the value of Australia’s total will only really be clear once West Indies’ innings develops.
Australia were handily placed on 129 for 2 shortly before the dinner break with Cameron Green and Steven Smith well set, but Green fell to a wonderful delivery from Seales shortly before the break, and then things started to happen quickly in the final session. Shamar Joseph removed Smith and Beau Webster, while Travis Head fell to a stunning catch by substitute Anderson Phillip.
Seales, Shamar Joseph and Greaves carried West Indies’ bowling after Alzarri Joseph was forced to leave the field due to back problems and was sent for scans. Meanwhile, Louis injured his knee when it was jarred in the outfield, and Campbell took a blow in the chest at short leg.
The day had significant intrigue before a ball was bowled when it was confirmed that Australia had omitted Nathan Lyon for the first time where he was available for a Test since 2013, as they went with an all-pace attack. West Indies, meanwhile, thought conditions warranted recalling their specialist spinner Jomel Warrican. There was purchase for both West Indies’ spinners but considerable assistance for quicks throughout on a well-grassed surface, with life very difficult as day turned to night.
The tempo of the early exchanges belied what would come later. Sam Konstas, who was dropped on 1, and Usman Khawaja battled through the first hour for 21 runs and went on to compile the longest opening stand of the series. By lunch, Australia were 50 for 1, having struck just four boundaries, although a sluggish outfield was partly to blame for that.
Konstas was given a life when debutant Anderson spilled a chance at third slip in the fifth over and was skittish in his running early on, twice being at risk of being dismissed had there been direct hits. Having done some hard work against the new ball, he was trapped lbw by Greaves to leave him one innings in the series to make a mark.
West Indies thought they had Green before the interval when Seales won an appeal lbw, but Green reviewed with a second to spare and the ball was sliding past leg stump. Aside from that moment, Green built on the positive work of the second innings in Grenada and, after tea, unfurled a couple of crisp drives.
Khawaja had absorbed a lot of pressure and good deliveries before falling to a stunning catch by Shai Hope as he edged Shamar Joseph from around the wicket.
Smith was quickly out of the blocks, pulling his first boundary powerfully through midwicket, and took three more in a row off Greaves before being given a life on 24 when Warrican couldn’t cling on to a stinging return catch. With Alzarri Joseph off the field, Chase had to juggle his pace bowlers and resorted to twin spin of himself and Warrican for a period in the middle session.
Shortly before dinner, Seales, who has been outstanding through the series, produced a wonderful delivery which straightened to Green to clip the top of the bails – replays showed that if the ball hadn’t deviated, it would have hit the middle of the bat.
When Smith and Head resumed under the glare of the floodlights, it was clear that batting would be tough and that the batters weren’t going to hang around. Smith was beaten by the first ball of the session and then edged wide of the slips before being distracted by the clock at the Courtney Walsh End, which needed covering with a black cloth.
Smith slashed an edge over the cordon against Shamar Joseph before a repeat was well caught by King at first slip. There was no repair act from Webster this time as he edged behind.
Head hadn’t hit top gear as he initially tried to repel the bowling, but then attempted to launch Greaves over the offside and was spectacularly held by Phillips, running to his right of mid-off and flying horizontally to hold the catch.
Bat-throwing time had clearly been declared. Alex Carey had already lofted a six over mid-off against Greaves and then edged behind. Pat Cummins launched three sixes as he flung the bat at nearly everything before picking out long-on. Shamar Joseph took his series tally to 17 wickets when he removed Josh Hazlewood. (ESPNCricinfo)
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