West Indies struggling in their first innings – Third Test vs. Australia

West Indies 165-8 (Kieran Powell 40, Shivnarine Chanderpaul 34*, Nathan Lyon 3-48) trail Australia 328 (Matthew Wade 106, David Warner 50, Shane Shillingford 6-119) by 163 runs.

Matthew Wade - Star performer with his maiden Test ton
Matthew Wade – Star performer with his maiden Test ton

Matthew Wade lifted Australia by his excellent maiden ton and their bowlers almost ripped through the batting of the West Indies in the first innings.

Australia smashed 328 runs in their first innings and West Indies were struggling at 165 for the loss of 8 wickets in 65 overs.

The second day’s play came to an end on Tuesday, April 24, 2012 at Windsor Park, Roseau, Dominica.

Earlier, Australia started the day with 212 for the loss of seven wickets in 90 overs whereas Matthew Wade and Mitchell Starc were unbeaten on 22 and 24 runs respectively. Both batsmen were not in a hurry and initiated the day with a positive attitude as Wade got a life at 22 on the first ball of the 95th over when Kemar Roach dropped him on his own bowling. Starc was run out on the very next ball for 35 after the addition of 16 runs in the overnight total.

Wade became the senior partner and tried to face most of the bowling as Ben Hilfenhaus joined him at the fall of the 8th wicket. The former completed his fifty on the last ball of the 104th over and changed his gears soon after that by hitting the boundaries more often as Hilfenhaus secured his end. Wade dispatched two consistent sixes to Shane Shillingford in the 111th over and entered into nineties while the total crossed 300 as well.

Matthew Wade celebrated his maiden ton on the second ball of the 114th over by sending the ball reeling wide of the covers for four and was cheered by the spectators present in the park and his team mates from the pavilion. The duo hammered 102 runs partnership in just 20.1 overs when Wade was caught by Darren Bravo at deep midwicket off Shillingford for 106 scored from 146 balls with 3 huge sixes and 10 well timed fours. Ben Hilfenhaus followed him two balls later and the whole team was bowled out for 328 runs in 114.5 overs.

Shane Shillingford was the most successful bowler by grabbing six wickets whereas Kemar Roach, Ravi Rampaul and Darren Sammy shared one wicket each.

West indies has a horrible start when they lost their first wicket for just one run as Kieran Powell joined in with Adrian Barath and stabilised the innings. They kept the score board moving while dispatching the loose balls to the boundaries often. The first fifty of the innings was completed in the 19th over as Powell was dropped by Ricky Ponting at short cover off Nathan Lyon at 30.

The score was enhanced to 62 when Lyon struck and sent Barath back to the pavilion for 29 runs. That was the start of a disaster for the Caribbeans as the wicket started tumbling with a little resistance from the incoming batsmen. Powell was the fourth batsman to be dismissed for 40 runs and the rest were just like a come and go as the Kangaroos bowlers became unplayable.

Their most experienced batsman, Shivnarine Chanderpaul held one end with determination but witnessed the surrender of the rest until Shane Shillingford became the eighth victim at the team score of 120 and Ravi Rampaul provided him able support from the other end. The duo put their heads down and tried to consolidate the innings by adding useful runs and enhanced the score to 165 runs without any further loss. Chanderpaul was unbeaten for 34 off 110 balls and Rampaul was at the crease with 24 from 33 balls with 4 fours.

Nathan Lyon was the highest wicket taker with three whereas Ben Hilfenhaus, Mitchell Starc, Ryan Harris and David Warner claimed one wicket each.

West Indies are out of the danger of the follow on but have to do a real hard job to save the match as Australia is in the driving seat at the moment.


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