A spate of questionable DRS decisions have added a layer of controversy to a nailbiting struggle in Australia’s first Test against the West Indies, with the tourists 4/92 at the close of Day 2 in Barbados.
After the hosts, courtesy of important 40s from captain Roston Chase and wicketkeeper Shai Hope both ended by controversial calls from third umpire Adrian Holdstock, took a slender 10-run first innings lead, the visitors clawed their way to a tenuous 82-run advantage by stumps, with four late-day boundaries from Beau Webster (19 not out) potentially the beginning of a priceless middle-order contribution.
By day’s end, Holdstock was all but persona non grata in Bridgetown, with first a bewildered Chase adjudged LBW to Pat Cummins for 44 despite a seemingly obvious inside edge that both the on-field and third umpires missed; then, a spectacular diving one-handed catch from Alex Carey off Webster to remove Hope for 48 was upheld even with the ball appearing to graze the ground mid-take.
Both dismissals, plus a later – albeit less costly – LBW shout against Cameron Green denied by the DRS due to Holdstock adjudging, again controversially, that a spike on Ultra-Edge was Green hitting his pad with his bat and not the ball flicking the pad itself, left the West Indies, in particular an increasingly animated coach Daren Sammy, feeling as if they had received the rough end of the stick.
Australia had a controversy of their own, left bemused and stripped of a review when a Chase LBW shout off Josh Hazlewood in the opening overs of the day when Holdstock defied available evidence to claim the Windies captain had hit the ball first; overall, though, the lion’s share of the complaints were from the hosts.
On a pitch where ball has dominated from the outset – albeit with some exceptionally ordinary work with the bat from both sides – Australia may still work their way to an unassailable lead in the days to come, with unbeaten pair Travis Head (13 not out) and Webster holding the key heading into Day 3.
But the brittle batting order ruthlessly exposed by South Africa in the World Test Championship final has looked more fragile than ever in Barbados, with Sam Konstas’ disastrous second innings adding to the multitude of headaches Australia’s selectors will contend with ahead of an Ashes summer now looming large.
Konstas was twice dropped in regulation fashion by the Windies slips cordon in Shamar Joseph’s opening over alone, bringing the tally of spilled chances off the star quick to five for the Test.
But not only did he fail to capitalise on the twin lives, but by the time the 19-year old chopped Joseph on for a torturous 38-ball 5, he couldn’t made a more compelling case for being overwhelmingly out of his depth than had his stay been ended at the first opportunity.
That he outlasted Usman Khawaja, who started briskly but perished after being struck in front by Alzarri Joseph and unable to overturn the on-field out call via the DRS, was a minor miracle, but not one that in any way compensates for a horror first overseas Test.
Having been overlooked for Lord’s in favour of Marnus Labuschagne as opener, the teenage sensation has now seen his noted weakness to inswing and questionable judgement outside off stump ruthlessly exposed by Joseph; that Konstas will get the entire series to make a case for the Ashes seems beyond doubt, but his campaign is off to the worst possible start.
More comfortable but scarcely more lucrative were Green and Josh Inglis, both left with double failures for the Test after errors in judgement – the former again chasing a ball outside off with hard hands to be snaffled in the cordon, the latter pulling a full reverse on his reckless Day 1 shot by shouldering arms to Jayden Seales and letting the ball cannon into off stump.
With the West Indies resuming on 4/57, the sight of debutant Brandon King fatefully shouldering arms to Hazlewood and getting his furniture disturbed in the opening stages, having already survived a regulation drop from Carey, would have troubled home fans just as much as the sight of the ball continuing to nip around to again make batting treacherous.
But with contrasting approaches – Chase resolute in defence, Hope fiercely driving anything pitched up, the experienced pair, whose exile from the Test team reached two and four years respectively before their recalls to face Australia, turned the tables on the champion touring attack.
The result was a 67-run partnership that looked set to take the Windies a long way towards a first-innings lead, and force Cummins to turn to Webster both for a breakthrough and some badly needed control just before lunch.
A one-wicket opening session was a far cry from the flurry of scalps that had pockmarked Day 1; with Nathan Lyon leaking runs at an alarming rate, the Australian captain had little recourse but to continue to rotate himself, Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc.
Luck was on their side when Cummins himself pinned Chase, though it took Holdstock’s charitable decision to decide an apparent inside edge was a mere optical illusion, to end the partnership; it was Webster, though, who would swing the momentum.
He too benefitted from the luck of the DRS via Carey’s contentious one-hander to end Hope’s gem of a return Test innings, but not before a brilliant delivery found Justin Greaves’ outside edge.
At 9/171 when Shamar Joseph was castled by a Starc yorker, Australia suddenly had a first-innings lead on offer; Alzarri Joseph, however, had other ideas, clubbing two fours and a colossal six over Hazlewood’s head to take the Windies to the front – a psychological boost no matter how slim the advantage.
Joseph’s unbeaten 23, off just 20 balls, is thus far greater than any contribution from Australia’s top six.
With the top four having failed again – in Konstas’ case, disastrously so – it will be on Head and Webster’s shoulders that Australia’s hopes of batting the hosts out of the match on Day 3 rest.
More likely, though, is that the tourists’ chances of victory are reliant on the quicks to bail the batters out of trouble … yet again.
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