ADELAIDE, JANUARY 18
Australia was set to force an early end to the first cricket test against West Indies after taking six second-innings wickets late on the second day at the Adelaide Oval on Thursday.
The Caribbean side was 73-6 in its second innings and still trails Australia by 22 runs going into Day 3 on Friday.
Travis Head earlier scored 119 from 134 balls to help put Australia in a strong position with 283 runs and a first-innings lead of 95 runs.
Head mixed some edgy near-misses with audacious stroke-play, smacking a dozen fours and three sixes.
"It was pretty rough going, but that reflects the wicket," Head said. "But I am really happy with the way that I was able to fight through that ... I felt like I took my chances when I could."
Shamar Joseph took his third wicket on his debut for West Indies and Australia went to lunch Thursday at 144-5 and trailed the Caribbean side by 44 runs.
The 24-year-old Joseph took the prized wicket of new Australian opener Steve Smith with his first ball in test cricket on the opening day Wednesday at the Adelaide Oval.
Joseph added the wicket of Marnus Labuschagne before stumps Wednesday, when Australia was 59-2. On Thursday, Joseph had new No. 4 batter Cameron Green out for 14.
Pace bowler Joseph, who made 36 batting at No. 11 - the second-highest score in the visitor's innings - had eventual figures of 5-94.
Australia captain Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood took four wickets each as Australia restricted West Indies to 188 and made good use of the Adelaide Oval pitch after winning the toss and bowling first.
West Indies, which hasn't won a test match Down Under since February 1997, has brought only five players who appeared in the two tests against Australia in 2022-23 and added seven uncapped players to the touring squad.
West Indies coach Andre Coley said things might not improve anytime soon for his Caribbean side.
Former captain Jason Holder is among a senior core of players who chose to play in cash-rich global Twenty20 leagues rather than tour Australia.
"Our situation is that financially we aren't secure enough to be able to offer substantial central contracts," Coley said. "And that is always going to be a challenge for us.
"What we have tried to do in the last six, 12 months is really have more conversations with the players to be able to work out windows where we can have our best players available. This is something that is widespread already and will become more of a challenge, but more so for countries who potentially aren't financially viable and don't play a lot of test cricket."
The second and final test in the series, a day-night match at the Gabba in Brisbane, begins Jan. 25.
