Australia vs. West Indies, 1st Test, Day 3: Calypso Collapso as Windies Crushed
Australia sealed a thumping victory over the West Indies in the opening Test of this three-game series by dismissing their visitors for just 148 in their second innings.
While Darren Bravo, who began the day unbeaten on 94, managed to complete a resilient century, there was little else for the Caribbean islanders to cheer on a disastrous day.
Jason Holder's men lost their last four first-innings wickets within the first 30 balls of the day.
.jpg?w=256 "Colts Jaguars Football")
And then, after being asked to follow on, the resurgent James Pattinson's pace proved too hot to handle, and they were bowled out in just 36.3 overs to lose by an innings and 212 runs, the fifth-worst innings defeat in their history.
With the dust still settling at the Bellerive Oval, let's take a look at some of the major talking points from a one-sided Test.
Postman Pattinson
Before returning to the Australian Test team from an 18-month absence due to injury, James Pattinson revealed he isn't taking cricket as seriously these days.
However, it's unlikely the West Indies will be laughing after the 25-year-old paceman showed what his country have been missing by blowing away the tourists' top order in the second innings.
By the time the scoreboard had ticked over to 24 runs, Pattinson, bowling with pace and aggression, had sent the first four West Indies batsmen back to the pavilion.
Shortly after, he added the scalp of Jason Holder, caught down legside, to complete his fourth five-wicket haul in Tests.
With Mitchell Johnson now retired and Mitchell Starc seriously injured, the Aussie selectors will be delighted to have the Victorian back with all guns blazing.
In Kraigg we trust
One of the West Indies' few bright spots from this Test, Kraigg Brathwaite showed he is capable of performing when the pressure is on.
While a revolving door may as well have been built into his team's dressing room for his colleagues, the 23-year-old showed some much-needed resistance in scoring 94 runs from just 122 balls.
Incredibly, his knock, which totalled 64 per cent of his team's entire second-innings output, was the highest-ever percentage of runs contributed by a West Indian in a completed innings in Test cricket history.
As evidenced by his tally of four tons from 25 Tests, there have been previous signs of Brathwaite's ability, but now he needs to improve his consistency and push his average, currently 33.76, much higher.
To follow on or not to follow on
In the modern-day game, more often than not teams don't enforce the follow on, choosing to bat on instead to ideally build a huge, intimidating lead.
Another reason behind this thinking is that it gives your bowlers more chance to rest between innings rather than having to bowl back-to-back innings.
However, in the entire history of cricket, there have only been three occasions where a side that has been asked to follow on has managed to come back and win.
At Hobart, after the West Indies' first innings was wrapped up in just five overs, Steve Smith knew his bowlers were fresh and sensed the opposition was reeling so went for the kill.
And 36.3 overs later, the game was all over.
Disappearing middle order
The West Indies managed to score just 371 runs from two completed innings in Hobart and 202 of these came from standout individual knocks from Darren Bravo and Kraigg Brathwaite.
So what happened to the rest of the batsmen?
One obvious area for improvement is the middle order where Marlon Samuels, Jermaine Blackwood and Denesh Ramdin contributed just 24 runs between them from six innings.
Considering the vast experience of Samuels and Ramdin—combined, they've played 134 Tests—and that Blackwood, who registered a pair, averaged nearly 40 prior to this game, this trio will be particularly disappointed with their efforts.
What next?
Ideally the West Indies would get straight back on the horse; however, the only game between now and two back-to-back Tests at Melbourne and Sydney is a throwaway game against a Victoria XI in Geelong.
It's very hard to see how Jason Holder's men are going to learn much from that token fixture, and fans of Caribbean cricket could be watching from behind the sofa when the Boxing Day Test arrives.
For the Aussies, attention turns to the start of the Big Bash League, which could prove to be more of a test of their skills than the last three days.
.jpg?w=480 "Colts Jaguars Football")
