In the absorbing opening day of the 1st Test, Australia gained a slight advantage over the West Indies in Dominica. A total of 13 wickets fell on the opening day as the West Indies were bundled inside two sessions.
The Windies could only manage to post a mere 148 on the board, but in reply rocked Australia’s top-order, dismisses David Warner, Shaun Marsh and Michael Clarke.
Warner was the first to depart when Jerome Taylor got rid of him in only the third over of Australia innings. Then Marsh edged one off Jason Holder, while leg-spinner Devendra Bishoo dismisses Clarke.
“We didn’t bat well. There’s not much more I can say on that,” West Indies pacer Holder said. “We didn’t bat well, it was just a bad day at the office for us.”
“But we got the three wickets which has put us back in the game a bit more,” he added. “If we start well tomorrow it could well be even-steven come lunch time tomorrow.”
Meanwhile, Steve Smith looked solid once again in the middle and ensured that the visitors receive no more jolts and batted through the remaining overs with Adam Voges. Australia finished the day 85/3 and are still trailing by 63 runs.
“On that wicket, it’s still a pretty good wicket, so I think anything around 300 is probably par,” Australia’s Josh Hazlewood said. “So I think we’ve done quite well.”
“As you saw they bowled some good areas this afternoon to have us 3-80 so it might be a bit less par score than what we originally thought,” he added.
Earlier, Denesh Ramdin’s decision of batting first backfired when Australia ripped through West Indies batting. The hosts failed to get even a single flowing partnership and were bundled by Aussie pacers.
Mitchell Johnson and Hazlewood took three wickets each, while Mitchell Starc took a couple. Spinners Nathan Lyon and Smith chipped in with a wicket apiece.
