BRISBANE: Australia took the late wicket of Tagenarine Chanderpaul to even the contest after a fascinating second day’s play in the second Test against the West Indies in Brisbane on Friday.

At stumps, the West Indies were 13-1, a lead of 35 runs, after Chanderpaul was given out on review for the faintest of edges off Josh Hazlewood in the last over of the night.

After bowling the West Indies out for 311 in their first innings midway through the opening session of the day-night Test, Australia staged a lower innings recovery, allowing captain Pat Cummins to declare at 289-9 late in the night session. That decision paid off with the late dismissal of Chanderpaul.

Australia had got away to a disastrous start to their first innings and were reduced to 24-4 and 54-5.

Kemar Roach took three of the first four wickets to fall.

After their poor start, the Australians were rescued by a counter-attacking innings from wicket-keeper Alex Carey, who smashed 65 from just 49 balls.

When Carey was dismissed with the score on 150, the Australians were still 161 behind and the West Indies looked certain to take lead.

But Cummins and Usman Khawaja (75) took Australia to 242 before the opener edged to first slip to become off-spinner Kevin Sinclair’s first Test wicket.

Khawaja’s wicket was the signal for Cummins to go even further on the attack and he raced to his highest Test score of 64 in an innings that combined regulation cricket shots with agricultural swipes.

When Nathan Lyon edged Alzarri Joseph to wicket-keeper Joshua Da Silva to become the ninth wicket down, Cummins had had enough and declared to allow his bowlers 35 minutes under lights at the West Indians.

Earlier, Roach rocked the Australians with three quick wickets as the West Indies dismissed Steve Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, Cameron Green and Travis Head before dinner.

After hitting a beautiful straight drive off Roach to the boundary in the opening over, Smith was hit on the pad next ball, drawing a huge appeal from the West Indies.

Umpire Nitin Menon said not out but the West Indies reviewed immediately and replays showed the ball would have crashed into middle stump, leaving Australia 6-1.

It was 11-2 in the next over when Labuschagne got a thick edge to fourth slip off Joseph, where Kevin Sinclair took a diving catch to his right.

Green drove Roach on the up to give a simple catch to Kraigg Brathwaite at mid-off, before Head was out first ball, tickling a delivery down the leg side.

Mitchell Marsh smashed his way to 21 but miscued a pull shot and got a leading edge to mid-off, giving Joseph his second wicket.

But the lower half of the table were able to recover and put Australia back in the game.

The West Indies tail had batted superbly with Sinclair’s 50 standing out. The eighth-ranked tourists antagonised the Australians with the bat for 18 overs after resuming from 266-8 overnight.

An untimely tumble left Roach (8) exposed to a simple run out, prompting Sinclair to attack spinner Lyon (2-81) and reach 50 with a majestic six over long-on before being stumped off the next ball to end the first innings.

Scoreboard

WEST INDIES (1st innings, overnight 266-8):

K. Brathwaite c Carey b Hazlewood 4

T. Chanderpaul c Smith b Starc 21

K. McKenzie c Khawaja b Cummins 21

A. Athanaze c Carey b Starc 8

K. Hodge c Smith b Starc 71

J. Greaves c Khawaja b Starc 6

J. Da Silva lbw Lyon 79

K. Sinclair st Carey b Lyon 50

A. Joseph c Smith b Hazlewood 32

K. Roach run out 8

S. Joseph not out 3

EXTRAS (B-4, W-2, NB-2) 8

TOTAL (all out, 108 overs) 311

FALL OF WICKET: 1-9 (Brathwaite), 2-42 McKenzie, 3-54 (Chanderpaul), 4-57 (Athanaze), 5-64 (Greaves), 6-213 (Da Silva), 7-225 (Hodge), 8-266 (A. Joseph), 9-297 (Roach)

BOWLING: Starc 24-3-82-4, Hazlewood 20-6-38-2 (1nb), Cummins 23-1-76-1 (1w), Lyon 28-3-81-2, Marsh 2-0-3-0 (1nb), Green 7-2-12-0 (1w), Labuschagne 1-0-1-0, Head 3-0-14-0

AUSTRALIA (1st innings):

S. Smith lbw Roach 6

U. Khawaja c Athanaze b Sinclair 75

M. Labuschagne c Sinclair b A. Joseph 3

C. Green c Brathwaite b Roach 8

T. Head c Da Silva b Roach 0

M. Marsh c Roach b A. Joseph 21

A. Carey c Chanderpaul b S. Joseph 65

M. Starc c Da Silva b A. Joseph 2

P. Cummins not out 64

N. Lyon c Da Silva b A. Joseph 19

EXTRAS (B-9, LB-9, W-2, NB-6) 26

TOTAL (for nine wickets, 53 overs) 289

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-6 (Smith), 2-11, (Labuschagne) 3-24 (Green), 4-24 (Head), 5-54 (Marsh), 6-150 (Carey), 7-161 (Starc), 8-242 (Khawaja), 9-289 (Lyon)

BOWLING: Roach 11-0-47-3 (1w), A. Joseph 14-0-84-4 (5nb, 1w), S. Joseph 11-1-56-1, Greaves 9-3-31-0, Sinclair 8-1-53-1 (1nb)

WEST INDIES (2nd Innings):

K. Brathwaite not out 3

T. Chanderpaul c Carey b Hazlewood 4

EXTRAS (B-4, LB-1, NB-1) 6

TOTAL (for one wicket, 7.3 overs) 13

FALL OF WICKET: 1-13 (Chanderpaul)

BOWLING: Starc 4-1-6-0 (1nb), Hazlewood 3.3-2-2-1

Published in Dawn, January 27th, 2024