Head, Hazlewood extend Australia’s dominance

Travis Head’s counterattacking century and Josh Hazlewood’s second four-fer in as many innings helped Australia take firm control of proceedings on Day 2 of the first Test against West Indies in Adelaide. Head notched up his seventh Test hundred to give the hosts a significant 95-run lead despite a Shamar Joseph fifer on debut, and Hazlewood just hammered home that advantage with a fine opening burst as Windies lost six under a session’s play to go to stumps at 73/6, trailing by 22 more.

With the wicket still offering assistance to the bowlers, Hazlewood remained unplayable through his new-ball spell that ended with staggering figures of 6-4-11-4. Their dismal batting show continued from the first day and the tourists managed to score their first runs off him only at the start of his fifth over off a thick inside edge.

After Mitch Starc began with a maiden, Hazlewood struck with his very first delivery and Tagenarine Chanderpaul departed for a golden duck, having nicked behind to the keeper. Kraigg Brathwaite was the next to depart, credit to the sharp catch under the lid at short leg from Head. Yet to open his account, Alick Athanaze nearly chopped on in the same over and only survived to play seven more dots before gloving his attempted hook to the ‘keeper. He burnt a review in challenging the on-field call only to be left disappointed. Kavem Hodge then fell cheaply for the second time on debut, edging to second slip and giving Hazlewood his fourth.

Staring down the barrel at 7 for 3 after six overs, it was the half-centurion from the first innings that helped West Indies move on briefly. Kirk McKenzie indeed looked most positive of them all in the middle, albeit helped by a couple of early reprieves with tough chances going down. He played a couple of beautiful drives in his 35-ball stay in the middle and was eyeing a third – lured in by a full and wide delivery – when he chipped it straight to short-cover instead. Cam Green had struck on his second ball of the innings and Windies were down to 40/5, still 55 in the red.

A 33-run partnership ensued between Justin Greaves, who batted with a similar positive intent, and Joshua Da Silva as West Indies renewed their hopes of cutting down Australia’s lead. The pair kept busy in the middle, fetching an occasional boundary as West Indies inched closer. However, at the stroke of stumps, Nathan Lyon availed DRS to have the on-field not-out call overturned as Greaves fell for 24. West Indies are still 22 away from making Australia bat again, with only four wickets left in the bank.

Earlier, it was Head’s century – an innings of two halves – that set up the game for Australia. After seeing through a testing morning session and disciplined West Indies bowling, Head converted his hard-fought fifty into a counterattacking hundred that gave Australia 283 in their first essay despite Shamar continuing his impressive run with the ball.

The honours were shared in the morning session, with West Indies picking up three key middle-order wickets for a bargain but also Australia steadily cutting down their deficit. The hosts lost Green and Usman Khawaja without adding a lot to their overnight scores, and Mitch Marsh didn’t look all that convincing through his 26-ball stay for 5. Even Head took his time to get his eye in on a surface that wasn’t exactly easy to bat on. But post Lunch, he put on display his full range of shots to pick up the pace.

Even as a diving catch from Joshua da Silva behind the stumps put an end to Alex Carey’s stay in the middle, Head cut loose and took the attack to the opposition with Australia now having marched into the lead. He took on Shamar with back to back fours to enter the 90s and then pulled the rookie pace on consecutive balls on the other side of his seventh Test hundred.

It was eventually Alzarri who brought curtains on the stunning knock on 119, with an offcutter that Head ended up skying to give a catch at the ropes at the stroke of Tea, just after Australia went past 250. In the final session, Nathan Lyon managed to keep the West Indies bowlers at bay for half an hour before the visitors finally picked up the two remaining wickets to keep Australia’s lead to double digits. As usual, it was Shamar who managed the crucial breakthrough when he cleaned up Lyon to register his maiden fifer on debut, and Pat Cummins was bowled first ball with Australia folding on 283 in reply to West Indies’ 188.

Brief scores:
West Indies 188 & 73/6 (Kirk McKenzie 26; Josh Hazlewood 4-18) trail  Australia 283 (Travis Head 119; Shamar Joseph 5-94) by 22 runs