Hazlewood leads Australia to huge win over West Indies

ADELAIDE: Australian Josh Hazlewood produced an inspired spell of seam bowling as Australia crushed the West Indies by 10 wickets in the first Test at the Adelaide Oval on Friday.

Bowling with almost metronomic precision, Hazlewood ended with 5-35 in the second innings after at one stage having figures of 4-2. Leading by 95 runs in the first innings, Australia dismissed the West Indies Friday morning for 120.

They then cruised to the winning target of 26 in under seven overs, although there was some late drama when, with the scores level, Australian opener Usman Khawaja was forced to retire hurt after being struck on the jaw by a Shamar Joseph bouncer.

There had been plenty of disquiet in Australia when the West Indies announced a touring squad missing a number of top players including former captain Jason Holder. Only eight of the 15-man squad had played Test cricket before, meaning there would have to be three debutants in the team for Adelaide.

While captain Kraigg Brathwaite and fellow opener Tagenarine Chanderpaul have formed an effective partnership at the top of the order, the next four batsmen had only three caps between them. And with both Brathwaite and Chanderpaul failing in this Test match, that inexperience showed, with only Kirk McKenzie offering much resistance to the Australian attack.

However, they will take some positives out of the match from McKenzie´s batting and especially the batting and bowling of Shamar Joseph, who was playing only his sixth first class game. Joseph took five wickets in the first innings and scored valuable runs in both innings coming in at No.11.

After resuming Friday on 73-6, still 22 runs behind, much of the West Indies´ faint hopes depended on experienced wicketkeeper Joshua Da Silva, who was not out 17 overnight. But after adding one run to his overnight total Da Silva was caught on the deep fine leg boundary for the second time this match after not being able to control the hook shot, leaving his side 84-7.

Alzarri Joseph played well but got a faint edge to wicketkeeper Alex Carey off Mitchell Starc to fall for 16, with West Indies 94-8, still one run from making Australia bat again. Hazlewood then clean bowled Gudakesh Motie without any addition to the score, bringing newcomer Shamar Joseph to the crease, who promptly played a beautiful cover drive for four.

The free-spirited Shamar Joseph showed no fear and he and veteran Kemar Roach added 26 for the final wicket before Joseph charged off-spinner Nathan Lyon and was stumped by Carey.

West Indies coach Andre Coley conceded inexperience had played a large part in the dramatic second innings collapse that saw them slump to 19-4. “The learning curve has been pretty steep for some of them,” Coley said.

“But if they were to sit back and some of the feedback has been, it hasn´t been tremendously difficult. It has been testing. “I think the challenge has pretty much been the consistency of the bowlers, obviously a wealth of experience in that Australian bowling attack, so their ability to stay patient, and there were times our batters played quite well.”

Australia won the toss

West Indies 1st Innings 188

Australia 1st Innings 283

West Indies 2nd Innings 120

Australia 2nd Innings (T: 26 runs)

Steven Smith not out 11

Usman Khawaja retired hurt 9

Marnus Labuschagne not out 1

Extras: (lb 1, nb 4) 5

Total: 6.4 Ov (RR: 3.90) 26/0

Did not bat: Cameron Green, Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh, Alex Carey, Mitchell

Starc, Pat Cummins (c), Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood

Fall of wickets: 0-25* (Usman Khawaja, retired hurt)

Bowling: Kemar Roach 2-0-6-0, Alzarri Joseph 3-0-12-0, Shamar Joseph 1.4-0-7-0

Match Result: Australia won by 10 wickets

Player of the match: Travis Head

Umpires: Adrian Holdstock, Nitin Menon