The days when intimidating West Indies pace bowlers rampaged across Australia breaking bones and smashing wickets on the way to winning four of five series from 1979 to 1993 are long gone, and their last test win Down Under came in February 1997.
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Marsh was visibly relieved to reached three figures, just his third Test ton, after he ran himself out for 99 against India in Melbourne a year ago. I definitely feel comfortable at this level.
“I guess we were not as consistent as we needed to be”.
The Windies lost their only Hobart Test match by nine wickets 10 years ago after being bowled out for 149, with Glenn McGrath getting four wickets and Brett Lee three.
Adam Voges, the aging middle-order batsman batting at 174 off 209 balls at close, Shaun Marsh written off by leading Australia pundits sitting pretty at 139 off 205 balls, the Voges-Marsh alliance yielding 327 for the yet unfinished fourth-wicket stand.
Voges was 258 not out with Australia 4-570 near lunch on the second day.
According to Cricket Australia, Marsh and Voges’ fourth-wicket union that will resume tomorrow unbroken on 317 was the largest Australia has managed over the West Indies since 1969, when Bill Lawry and Doug Walters posted 336 in Sydney. “They know the conditions better than us we”, said fast bowling legend Sir Curtly Ambrose, now bowling consultant to the Windies.
But for all the West Indies being overwhelmed by the occasion and ineffectual with the ball and in the field, it was a day that belonged to the two West Australian veterans whose path to Test cricket has often been rugged and strewn with difficulties.
“That really shattered the dressing room so it’s just very good to have him back and I’m sure he will be on the guys to put things in place and get ready for this game”.
“I think Warner and Smith will be key and once we get them out early then that could give us some leeway to really test them”.
An under-strength Australian attack will only help West Indies’ chances. They bowled only 50 overs in the first two sessions of play and needed to call on part-time spinners to get to 89 of the regulation 90 overs under the threat of disciplinary action from the match referee Chris Broad.
And there appears to be no end in sight for a hapless West Indies side who were left battered and bruised after a miserable opening day in the first Test against Australia in Hobart.
Earlier, David Warner and Joe Burns seemed to have given Australia the kind of start they needed with a partnership of 75 but what made it even more freakish was that those runs came off less than 11 overs.
West Indies (From): Kraigg Brathwaite, Shai Hope, Darren Bravo, Marlon Samuels, Jermaine Blackwood, Denesh Ramdin(w), Jason Holder(c), Kemar Roach, Jerome Taylor, Devendra Bishoo, Shannon Gabriel, Carlos Brathwaite, Rajendra Chandrika, Jomel Warrican, Shane Dowrich.
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The West Indies woes were compounded when Gabriel was forced off the ground with pain in his left ankle.
