While the tourists put a high price on their wicket, Australia eventually profited from consistent pressure on day three of the first Test
Match Report: Australia win by 164 runs
ScorecardResolute Windies succumb to persistent Aussie pressure
A milestone moment for skipper Pat Cummins followed by his team's dominant bowling display with the second new ball sees Australia with a virtually unassailable grip on the first NRMA Insurance Test against the West Indies.
The dominance Australia displayed with the bat across the first two days seemed set to be repeated with ball when they struck in the opening over of day three, but for the next two sessions the visitors hung in and held their own while landing the occasional counter-punch.
But Cummins' stepped up to snare his 200th Test wicket at a crucial moment, before Mitchell Starc wrought havoc as the visitors lost 6-39 against the second new ball to be dismissed for 283, still 315 runs adrift of Australia's daunting first innings.
In the lengthening shadows, openers Usman Khawaja and David Warner immediately set about growing the lead after Cummins opted against enforcing the follow-on, doubtless wary of batting last on a pitch already starting to show signs of variable bounce.
Khawaja recorded a rare failure, caught behind for six when looking to chase quick runs, but by stumps Australia (1-29) boasted an advantage off 344 with Warner and first innings double centurion Marnus Labuschagne to resume tomorrow morning.
In 145 years of Test cricket, only one team can claim to have won after surrendering a first innings lead of 315 or more, and that was England at The Oval in 2006 when they trailed by 331 but were awarded the match on forfeit after Pakistan refused to take the field due to a dispute over umpiring.
On the evidence presented at Perth Stadium thus far, it would take similarly sensational events to see the West Indies somehow manufacture a win.
The death rattle! #AUSvWI pic.twitter.com/1UMdHA4gQ0
— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) December 2, 2022
Australia had begun day three precisely as they had hoped, with Josh Hazlewood sliding past opener Tagenarine Chanderpaul's outside edge three times in the opening over before finding it to present David Warner with a straightforward catch at slip.
Amid that repetition, Chanderpaul steered one delivery wide of third slip to reach an impressive half-century in his maiden Test innings from just 78 balls faced.
He added just one more ball to that tally before the visitors' first wicket fell, but showed enough in his maiden outing to suggest he might be a player of substance for some time to come.
There were others who got a start in the West Indies dogged resistance, including Shamarh Brooks who looked perhaps the most fluent of his top-order colleagues after being a last-minute call-up as concussion substitute for number three Nkrumah Bonner this afternoon.
Given they needed to post their highest first innings score in a Test against Australia for more than a decade simply to reach the follow-on target of 399, the West Indies sorely needed someone to play a knock of Labuschagne or Steve Smith proportions.
But only Chanderpaul and his opening partner Kraigg Brathwaite were able to reach 50, and it was the latter's dismissal by Cummins that provided the day's most poignant and pivotal moment.
Cummins became the 19th Australia men's player to snare 200 Test wickets, joining a club that also includes current teammates (and close friends) Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon.
But behind that bald statistic is a far more remarkable story, not least because of the array of injuries Cummins was forced to overcome between his debut at Johannesburg in 2011 and his return at Ranchi more than five years later, during which time Australia played 64 Tests.
At his going rate of around 4.5 wickets per Test, had he played at least 50 of those lost games he'd be on 425 Test scalps.
Or perhaps even beyond the 440 that Lyon now finds himself holding, with his two wickets today taking him past South Africa's Dale Steyn and into ninth place on the all-time Test wicket-takers list, just two behind fellow off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin from India.
As it stands, Cummins is the only Australian bowler to reach the 200-wicket milestone with a bowling average below 22.
He also got there in his 44th Test, with only Clarrie Grimmett (36), Cummins' boyhood hero Dennis Lillee (38), and leg-spin pair Stuart MacGill (41) and Shane Warne (42) reaching 200 in fewer appearances for Australia.
Image Id: 4E9D63A9D4B14986839D923DC6F03585 Image Caption: Cummins’ 200 Test wickets have come at an average of less than 22 // GettyThe moment, which arrived shortly after lunch today as the defiant West Indies innings had reached 1-159, was as emblematic as it was historic.
Not only did Cummins remove his rival skipper Brathwaite whose 252-minute stay for 64 was a model of concentration and commitment, he did it in a manner befitting the significance of the occasion.
Rather like he did to England's then captain Joe Root in the defining moment of the 2019 Ashes campaign, Cummins angled the ball into Brathwaite who looked to play late with his forward defensive push only to see the ball seam away sufficiently to beat the bat and tilt back off stump.
For all the pressure Australia's bowlers had built, and as close as they had come to capitalising on the initial breakthrough in the day's first over, Brathwaite's removal effectively came against the run of play.
But it brought about a subtle, then sudden shift in the day's narrative, as the West Indies then lost 3-50 between lunch and tea as well as number three batter Bonner who succumbed to the effects of concussion and was ruled out of the game.
Bonner was the victim of Cameron Green's first meaningful contribution to his maiden home Test, given the all-rounder wasn't required to bat in Australia's first innings of 4(dec)-598 and didn't take the ball until the 34th over of West Indies' reply.
Image Id: C080107CD7B54AFA876475DA7CE137CB Image Caption: Green later celebrated his first Test wicket in Perth // GettyHowever, with his third delivery he surprised Bonner with a bouncer that reared barely shoulder high only for the right-hander to duck and turn his head, which meant the ball slammed into the base of his protective helmet.
The 33-year-old was clearly stunned by the blow and underwent several minutes of on-field medical treatment before resuming his innings on two not out.
But he appeared to be struggling and was seen several times with head bowed. When drinks were taken half an hour later, he reported symptoms of dizziness and left the field.
Bonner was replaced by Jermaine Blackwood, who exhibited similarly sturdy defiance to his skipper and took over the senior batter's role after Brathwaite fell victim to Cummins' milestone ball.
He lost Kyle Mayers (1) when the usually explosive left-hander was beaten for speed by Starc who slammed a ball into the top of his off-stump, and the Australians felt they had former captain Jason Holder soon after when he was adjudged lbw to Hazlewood.
The gap between bat and pad was found - with devastating effect! #OhWhatAFeeling#AUSvWI | @Toyota_Aus pic.twitter.com/D52JHvUkYp
— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) December 2, 2022
The change brought an immediate reward, with Holder clipping a low catch to leg slip where Warner snared it smartly to his left.
The breakthrough came shortly after a West Indies team official announced Bonner had not been ruled out of the game with concussion despite the severity of his blow, an update that required further updating within minutes as substitute Brooks strode to the crease after Holder's wicket.
But not even the inclusion of a fresh batter could slow Australia's charge with new ball in hand.
Holder opted to review that decision after some consideration, indicating his belief the ball had hit high on his back leg and might therefore be shown to be clearing the stumps.
The DRS process then revealed a small spike on real-time snicko as ball passed bat and, despite the absence of any activity on hot spot, third umpire Kumar Dharmasena decreed an inside edge and the decision was overturned to the Australians' bemusement.
Holder prospered for a further half hour and landed a rare counter-blow by clubbing Lyon beyond the long-on boundary rope which prompted Australia's premier spin bowler to switch his attack to around the wicket.
Men's NRMA Insurance Test Series v West Indies
Nov 30 – Dec 4: First Test, Perth Stadium, 1:20pm AEDT
Dec 8-12: Second Test, Adelaide Oval, 3pm AEDT (day-night)
Australia squad: Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Marcus Harris, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, David Warner
West Indies squad: Kraigg Brathwaite (c), Jermaine Blackwood, Nkrumah Bonner, Shamarh Brooks, Tagenarine Chanderpaul, Roston Chase, Joshua Da Silva, Jason Holder, Alzarri Joseph, Kyle Mayers, Anderson Phillip, Kemar Roach, Jayden Seales, Devon Thomas
Buy #AUSvWI Test tickets here