Friday 11 December 2015

Astralia inching towards win against West Indies in Hobart

 hopeless and helpless, West Indies capitulated to 5 for 35 at lunch on the third day in Hobart after Steven Smith enforced the follow-on. James Pattinson marked his return to Test cricket with 4 for 19 as he demolished the top order in the second innings after Josh Hazlewood had earlier completed a four-wicket haul as West Indies were skittled for 223 in their first innings, Darren Bravo's century their only highlight.
At lunch they still trailed by 325 runs and Australia needed only four more wickets to complete victory, with Shannon Gabriel's foot injury set to prevent him from batting. At lunch Kraigg Brathwaite was still at the crease on 21 and Jason Holder was on 1 but they had plenty of work ahead of them to avoid handing Australia their biggest win ever against West Indies; the current record is a win by an innings and 217 runs in Brisbane in 1931.
The second-innings procession began with Rajendra Chandrika edging to slip off Pattinson without scoring, the third duck of Chandrika's four-innings Test career. Then came the big blow as Bravo played on to Pattinson for 4, and Marlon Samuels followed soon afterwards for 3 when he saw a catch fly off the shoulder of his bat to David Warner in the cordon.
Pattinson's fourth came next ball when Jermaine Blackwood was bowled by a delivery that stayed a touch low, completing a pair for him after he fell for a duck to Nathan Lyon in the first innings. Pattinson missed out on the hat-trick but there was further damage to come for West Indies as Mitchell Marsh struck with his first delivery when Denesh Ramdin edged a drive to gully for 4.
The Australians bowled well and found some movement but West Indies showed little application, seemingly having accepted that their chances in this contest were already over. It seemed an age ago that Bravo and Kemar Roach had put together a fighting 99-run partnership; in fact that stand had ended less than two hours earlier.
At least Bravo had managed to complete a well-deserved century before the first innings came to an end, his innings far and away that stand-out in an otherwise listless West Indies batting display. Bravo began the morning on 94 and brought up his hundred - the seventh of his Test career - in the first over of play, with a pair of boundaries driven through the off side off Peter Siddle.
But the celebration was short-lived. He lost his partner Roach for 31 in the next over when he edged behind off Hazlewood, and next ball Jerome Taylor chopped on for a golden duck to have Hazlewood on a hat-trick. It was the last ball of the over so Hazlewood had to wait for his hat-trick delivery and when it arrived, Jomel Warrican survived a ball that lobbed off his leg out of reach of bat-pad.
The next over brought the end of the innings when Bravo tried to force some late runs and was caught at point off a top edge, giving Siddle his second wicket. Bravo finished with 108 from 177 deliveries and West Indies still trailed Australia by 360 runs. It took Michael Clarke until the last Test of his career to enforce the follow on; Smith had no hesitation in doing it in his fourth as Australia's full-time captain.

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