Wickets tumbled either side of Alex Carey and Beau Webster’s 112-run stand as Australia were dismissed for 286 at stumps on day one of the second Test against the West Indies.
Alzarri Joseph’s 61-4 helped restrict Australia, who are gunning for an unassailable 2-0 series lead in Grenada. The tourists were clearly struggling at 93-4 at lunch but Webster (60) and Carey (63) combined to restore some order in the second session as the tourists reached 209-5 at tea.
But once Carey was out to Justin Greaves, playing a soft shot to mid-wicket, Australia lost 5-64 to end their innings.
Captain Pat Cummins chose to insert his side – including returning star batsman Steve Smith – at the island nation’s National Stadium.
But after making a positive start in St George’s, at a ground where they’ve never before played a Test match, the tourists were soon in trouble, losing openers Usman Khawaja and Sam Konstas in the space of five balls.
Khawaja, who with his second run of the match, had earlier become the 16th Australian to pass 6,000 Test runs, was trapped lbw by Alzarri Joseph and was given out on review for 16.
Konstas soon followed for 25, when he edged to West Indies wicketkeeper Shai Hope attempting to drive Anderson Phillip, who is playing his first Test since 2022.
And things took a turn for the worse when the returning Smith was caught by Phillip on the fine leg boundary off the top edge for three after attempting to take the attack to Joseph.
The 36-year-old Smith only rejoined the Aussie Test squad last Sunday after dislocating his right little finger during the recent World Test Championship final at Lord’s.
But brought in at No.4 to replace Josh Inglis, the loss of the Australian batting talisman so cheaply was another huge boost to the home team.
Travis Head (29) did well to stop the rot as he tried to maintain the visitors’ relatively quick scoring rate.
But Australia were hit with another sucker punch in the last ball before lunch when Cameron Green was out for 26. The West Australian was caught chasing a Jayden Seales delivery by Windies skipper Roston Chase at gully, just as he was finding his groove.
Following a 20-minute rain delay after lunch, Head was the next Australian player to go when he gloved a Shamar Joseph ball which was taken well by Hope to his left.
