West Indies tour of Australia
Series: Two matches for Frank Worrell trophy
Day 2 of 2nd Test Match
Venue: Adelaide Oval, South Australia
Toss: Australia won and batted
Live Scorecard: https://bit.ly/ausvwi2ndtest
Tagenarine Chanderpaul’s tenacity again shone through brightly as the left-handed opener produced another solid knock in only his second Test, to steady the West Indies’ first innings on Friday’s enthralling second day under the floodlights.
Australia declared on 511-7 about 35 minutes before tea, the unflappable Chanderpaul carved out a determined unbeaten 47 to steer the visitors to 102-4 at the close. Heading into the third of this pink ball contest, West Indies trail by 409 runs and much of their survival will depend on the left-handed opener who has already faced 98 balls and struck three fours and a six while seamer Michael Neser snatched 2-20.
Australia earlier owed their dominance to century-makers Travis Head (175) and Marnus Labuschagne (163) who extended their fourth wicket stand to 297 before being separated.
Resuming the afternoon on 330-3, Australia kept West Indies without success for the first hour as Head and Labuschagne dominated. In the end, it took Devon Thomas’s medium pace to break the stand with lunch on the horizon, the debutant (2-53) getting Labuschagne to edge a drive to keeper Joshua Da Silva held an excellent catch standing up. Head followed in the third over after the interval when he was sent back by Cameron Green in a mix-up over a second run, and run out at the striker’s end with a brilliant throw by the alert Thomas.
KEEPER THOMAS KEEPS THE FAITH
Devon Thomas vs Australia 2022
“I’m a believer,” Thomas said after the day’s play. “Everyone knows I came on this tour as a keeper but I can also bowl so when I was asked to send down a few overs I was happy to do it for the team. I hadn’t bowled in five-month, and earlier in the tour I was struck on the shoulder but I had to stand up for the team today,”
Looking at the game he said:
“It’s a long task. I think that if we could get some partnerships and stuff together if we could at least get about 280, we could at least save the match. We always have a good mood and good camaraderie. You can’t complain about the mood.”
Faced with a testing period before tea, West Indies survived the five overs to reach 14 without loss, Chanderpaul and captain Kraigg Brathwaite (19) then extending their opening stand to 35 following the resumption.
Brathwaite was the first wicket, as he edged a defensive stroke at Neser and fell to a catch at the wicket, his dismissal triggered a slide as three wickets fell for 15 runs in the space of 46 balls.
Chanderpaul found an ally in Thomas, the pair kept Australia’s attack at bay by posting an invaluable 40 for the fourth wicket. The close was beckoning when Thomas played on to seamer Cameron Green, which left nightwatchman Anderson Phillip to see out the day with Chanderpaul.
BOTTOM LINE
We enter Day 3 with a lot of batting ahead of us. Play will resume on Saturday at 2:30 pm (12 midnight Eastern Caribbean/11 pm Thursday Jamaica).