First Test match between AUS and WI: Day 2 at Stumps: Travis Head Ton and Josh Hazlewood Blitz Give Australia the Advantage Against Windies

Australia took total control of the opening Test match against the West Indies in Adelaide on Thursday thanks to an outstanding bowling performance from Josh Hazlewood and an outstanding attacking century from Travis Head.

Hazlewood got four wickets for just two runs at the beginning of the West Indies second innings to provide a crushing blow to the visitors, after Head’s explosive 119 from 134 balls that put Australia to 283 and a 95-run advantage in the first innings.

The West Indies were 73-6 at stumps on the second day, 22 runs short of forcing Australia to bat again.

With Justin Greaves removed off the last ball of the day’s play, Joshua Da Silva remained undefeated at 17.

Hazlewood’s outstanding seam bowling performance took out the top four West Indies batters.

After getting Tagenarine Chanderpaul out for a first ball duck, he had skipper Kraigg Brathwaite caught by Head at a deepish short leg in his next over.

After Alick Athanaze gloved a bouncer to keeper Alex Carey, the West Indies led 7-3. Kavem Hodge then edged out Steve Smith at second slip to make it 19-4.

Before McKenzie attempted an extravagant shot off Cameron Green, he spooned the ball to Marnus Labuschagne at short cover after trying to rebuild the innings with Greaves and Kirk McKenzie, bringing the score to 40.

Sensible batting from Greaves and Da Silva seemed to carry the West Indies to safety at stumps, but Nathan Lyon, an off-spinner, trapped Greaves leg before wicket for a mere 24 runs.

Head seemed to be playing on a different surface when he batted, reaching his sixth Test century with a magnificent cover drive to the boundary on a pitch that plagued every other batsmen.

After scoring a quick century, he ultimately fell, wonderfully caught by Kavem Hodge off the bowling of Alzarri Joseph on the boundary, but by then the damage was done and Australia were well and far in charge.

With three players making their debuts in this game, the West Indies are a below-average team, and the Australians were anticipated to prevail.

However, the visitors got consistent wickets in the opening two sessions, spearheaded by intriguing debutant Shamar Joseph, to initially put the Australians on the back foot.

Playing in only his sixth first-class encounter, Joseph finished with an incredible 5-94 in his Test debut.

Following David Warner’s retirement, Australia rearranged their batting order, putting Steve Smith at the top of the order to allow Green to rejoin the team.

The Australians would have been expecting for huge runs from the tall Green, after the first half of that experiment failed when Smith fell for 12 on Wednesday.

However, he was out of the game after only two overs on Thursday morning, when wicketkeeper Da Silva trapped him off Shamar Joseph, leaving the Australians down 69-3.

When Head arrived, he immediately turned his attention to attacking, while Usman Khawaja, who had begun the day with thirty runs, was steadily adding runs at the other end as the total approached 100.

Another rookie, Greaves, made the breakthrough by luring Khawaja into an ambitious drive that Athanaze was barely able to hold off at second slip.

The uneven bounce and sluggish speed of the pitch caused problems for all the batters, so it came as little surprise when Mitchell Marsh edged to third slip, where Greaves made a brilliant catch, and the Australians lost another wicket to the slips cordon.

Greaves’ second wicket came from a catch made by Da Silva of Alex Carey, while Shamar Joseph’s fourth came from a delivery that Mitchell Starc gloved to short leg.

Although the West Indies continued to take wickets, they were unable to stop the runs, and the Australian advantage, which at one point could have been manageable, suddenly grew to be intimidating.