Australia’s new opening pair have succumbed to another West Indies new-ball burst as the tourists slumped to 2-4 in their second innings late on day two of the second Test in Grenada.
Any ascendency Australia had gained from taking a 33-run first-innings lead was quickly eradicated by Windies’ quick Jayden Seales who accounted for both Sam Konstas for a duck and Usman Khawaja (2) after the pair were tasked with a challenging 35-minute period to survive before stumps.
Konstas survived just four balls as he chopped on chasing a short and wide delivery in the first over of the innings, while Khawaja was stuck on the crease and trapped lbw for the third straight innings in Seales’ (2-5) second over.
Cameron Green (6 not out) and nightwatchman Nathan Lyon (2no) weathered the remaining 20 minutes as Australia went to stumps 2-12 leading by 45 after West Indies were bowled out for 253, but the task of surviving tomorrow morning remains just as ominous with the Dukes ball just six overs old and swinging considerably.
Aussie skipper Pat Cummins earlier took one of the all-time great caught and bowled catches as Australia also took advantage of the new ball at the National Stadium in St George’s.
Brandon King’s maiden Test half-century – and West Indies first of the series – helped the hosts fight back after more top order struggles until Cummins (2-46) intervened again in the middle session alongside Nathan Lyon (3-75) to see Australia take a narrow first-innings lead.
The Aussie skipper and his off-spinner combined to take 3-5 in four overs in the hour before tea after King’s 75 from 108 balls and opener John Campbell’s 40 from 52 set them a solid platform from which they would have been eyeing their own first-innings advantage.
But having progressed to 4-169 with Shai Hope (21) also contributing in a 58-run stand with King, West Indies slipped to 7-174 before eventually being bowled out for 253 after some lower-order hitting by Alzarri (27) and Shamar Joseph (29) saw them add 51 for the eighth wicket in no time.
The second day began with a showcase of athletic feats from Australia’s fast bowlers as Josh Hazlewood (2-43) and Cummins claimed the first two West Indies wickets caught and bowled, which was just the eighth time in almost 150 years of Test cricket that mode of dismissal had accounted for the first two wickets of an innings.
Top order batting again proved tough as day two resumed 11 minutes early due to the rain on the opening day, with Kraigg Brathwaite falling for an eight-ball duck in his 100th Test when he chipped a catch that Hazlewood collected low down in his follow through.
The second caught and bowled was on another level however, after Cummins found the edge of No.3 Keacy Carty (6) with his second ball of his spell from the pavilion end.
The ball then ricocheted off his pad and into the leg side, with Cummins rapidly changing direction to pouch the ball in his outstretched right hand millimetres from the turf after sprinting across the pitch and diving full stretch to take the catch.
Opener John Campbell looked to have found his feet again at Test level after being recalled for this series as he added a quickfire 40 from 50 balls, but after pulling Hazlewood for six and occasionally walking at the Aussie quicks, the approach also brought his downfall when he advanced to Beau Webster and skied it to mid-on to leave West Indies were 3-64.
It was Campbell’s sixth time out in the forties in his 22 Tests having only managed three half-centuries, as he registered another promising start with his 21st score over 20 before again failing to kick on.
The hosts went to lunch 3-110 but that became four down in the first over after the break as Hazlewood trapped Windies skipper Roston Chase in front, who was sent on his way after Australia successfully reviewed Adrian Holdstock’s not out call.
White-ball stars King and Hope wrestled back the momentum as they dominated the next hour of play, targeting Lyon for the second Test in a row as the former crashed him for a pair of sixes down the ground as the off-spinner’s first 32 deliveries cost him 30 runs.
King raised his bat in Test cricket for the first time when he flayed Starc over gully to bring up a 77-ball fifty as the pair put on 58 for the fifth-wicket.
But it was more Cummins brilliance that conjured the breakthrough, setting up Hope from wide on the crease with a trio of deliveries that beat the outside edge before producing a peach of a wobble seam delivery that decked back sharply on the inside of the bat and cannoned into off stump.
Lyon then found the glove of King down the leg side in the next over with a ball that bounced and spun, given out on review for the highest score in the match thus far as the off-spinner begun to find some purchase off the Grenada wicket.
His second wicket in the space of two overs brought a puff of dust from the surface as it spun and catch the inside edge of Justin Greaves’ bat, with Alex Carey pouching the rebound off the pad amid a strong day behind the stumps.
After the Josephs big hitting took the Windies beyond 200, last-wicket pair Anderson Phillip (10) and Jayden Seales (7no) eked out a painstaking 16 runs from 65 balls to reduce the first-innings deficit to 33 before another contentious catch off Travis Head’s part-time spin ended the innings with 19 overs remaining in the day.
That left Aussie openers Usman Khawaja and Sam Konstas a tricky 35-minute period to negotiate before stumps, but both were back in the sheds well before stumps amid Seales terrific opening spell.
Qantas Tour of the West Indies
First Test: Australia won by 159 runs
Second Test: July 3-7, St George’s, Grenada (midnight AEST)
Third Test: July 12-16, Kingston, Jamaica (4.30am AEST)
Australia Test squad: Pat Cummins (c), Sean Abbott, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Sam Konstas, Matt Kuhnemann, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Beau Webster
West Indies Test squad: Roston Chase (c), Jomel Warrican (vc), Kevlon Anderson, Kraigg Brathwaite, John Campbell, Keacy Carty, Justin Greaves, Shai Hope, Tevin Imlach, Alzarri Joseph, Shamar Joseph, Brandon King, Johann Layne, Mikyle Louis, Anderson Phillip, Jayden Seales
First T20I: July 20, Kingston, Jamaica (July 21, 11am AEST)
Second T20I: July 22, Kingston, Jamaica (July 23, 11am AEST)
Third T20I: July 25, Basseterre, St Kitts (July 26, 9am AEST)
Fourth T20I: July 26, Basseterre, St Kitts (July 27, 9am AEST)
Fifth T20I: July 28, Basseterre, St Kitts (July 29, 9am AEST)
West Indies T20 squad: TBC
Australia’s T20 squad: Mitchell Marsh (c), Sean Abbott, Cooper Connolly, Tim David, Ben Dwarshius, Nathan Ellis, Cameron Green, Aaron Hardie, Josh Hazlewood, Josh Inglis, Spencer Johnson, Matt Kuhnemann, Glenn Maxwell, Mitch Owen, Matthew Short, Adam Zampa
