Shamar Joseph had an incredible first day of Test cricket as Australia squandered a strong start to trail by 129 at stumps on day one

Steve Smith’s initial stint as a Test opener was billed as the headline act, but it was outshone by an even more grandiose introduction as West Indies speedster Shamar Joseph kept his underdog team in the game on a compelling first day at Adelaide Oval.

Joseph’s breezy 36 with the bat was a mere warm-up for his bowling that brought the wicket of Smith from his first ball then another vital strike as Australia went to stumps 2-59 and 129 runs adrift, with new number four Cameron Green 6no and veteran opener Usman Khawaja unbeaten on 30.

On a well-grassed Adelaide Oval pitch that head curator Damian Hough had foreshadowed might be a touch slow on day one before picking up pace, the West Indies’ last batting pair salvaged pride to lift their score to an almost passable 188.

But after contributing a lion’s share of those invaluable runs with the bat, Joseph delivered an even more stunning introductory note with the ball by removing freshly minted opener Smith (12) and Australia number three Marnus Labuschagne in a memorable maiden spell.

The lithe right-armer from the isolated village in Guyana’s densely vegetated interior became the first West Indies bowler after Trinidad’s Tyrell Johnson at The Oval in 1939 to claim a wicket with his first delivery in Test cricket.

And while Johnson’s victim was little-known England opener Walter Keeton who played just two Tests, Joseph can claim one of the greatest batters the game has witnessed occupying the same role at the top of the order.

Smith had moved confidently to 12 with a couple of sweetly struck boundaries off namesake (though no relation) Alzarri Joseph to suggest his shift to opening would become a seamless success.

But after aborting his run up which created the impression the moment might have got to him, Shamar Joseph proved that a false premise by landing his opening offering on a perfect length to take the edge of Smith’s usually flawless defence, with the catch neatly pouched by another debutant (Justin Greaves) diving low at third slip.

The celebratory sprint the bowler embarked upon was twice as long as his run-up, and he repeated that ritual three overs later when he induced Marnus Labuschagne into a hook shot that landed in the hands of Gudakesh Motie just inside the fine leg boundary.

It completed an uplifting day for the West Indies no-name brigade, with number three batter Kirk McKenzie (in his second Test) top-scoring with 50 while better-known and more experienced teammates failed to convert their starts.
Australia can be satisfied with their day against a spirited opponent, but will doubtless consider they let their quarry off the hook after ripping through the middle and lower order to reduce the visitors to 9-133 before Kemar Roach and Shamar Joseph counter-punched.

Josh Hazlewood seemed set to replicate the carnage he unleashed upon India at the same ground three summers ago when he began with his 250th Test wicket and soon after had 4-14 before finishing with 4-44.

And skipper Pat Cummins, who set his team on the way with the day’s first wicket in his opening over, also snared four wickets but couldn’t find a way through the last pair.

An audible groan had echoed through Adelaide Oval’s expansive member’s stands when Cummins announced his intention to bowl first at the coin toss, the crowd seemingly disappointed at being denied an early look at Smith as opener or even home-town hero Travis Head.

And it seemed their consolation hopes for a quick kill by Australia’s seamers on a green-tinged pitch, and a subsequent appearance by the hosts’ top-order, would also be dashed when West Indies opening pair Kraigg Brathwaite and Tagenarine Chanderpaul proved tough to dislodge.

It’s not that the first-wicket duo – the only members of their team’s top six to boast more than three Test appearances – didn’t flirt with danger during a tepid first hour rendered cooler by a gusty sou-westerly breeze.

Chanderpaul’s attempt to drop his hands and let a ball from Mitchell Starc pass harmlessly instead yielded a thick edge that flew through a vacant fourth slip, and next over Brathwaite inside-edged Hazlewood past leg stump with both mis-strokes bringing boundaries.

But for the most part the West Indies pair were watchful, eschewing the flair for which previous incarnations of Caribbean openers were known and instead offering no stroke when opportunity presented while waiting for Australia’s bowlers to stray into their respective hitting zones.

What loomed as a war of attrition was ultimately won by Cummins in his first over after Chanderpaul, perhaps feeling some scoreboard pressure after playing out 16 consecutive dot balls, flashed at a ball pitched fuller and wider than many others.

The resultant edge screamed above Cameron Green’s head at gully where the all-rounder was positioned closer than normal given the sluggish pitch, but justified his recall at first attempt with a stunning catch.

It was the third time in as many innings this tour Chanderpaul has fallen to catches behind the wicket off deliveries he might have easily left alone, and his departure meant Brathwaite remained as the only recognised Test batter in his team’s radically reshaped top six.

But when he also succumbed to Cummins, defeated by a peach than angled into the right-hander but held its line sufficiently off the thatchy surface to beat the bat and clip the top of off stump, the Australians were into the unknown an hour into the day.

McKenzie and senior partner Alick Athanaze (playing his third Test) held the line put down by the openers and pushed the total past 50 before Athanaze’s horrible misjudgement gave Hazlewood his first.

The stubborn refusal to be tempted saw the left-hander shoulder arms to a ball delivered from around the wicket and angled so unerringly towards the stumps that it thudded into off about two-thirds of the way up to ensure Hazlewood reach 250 Test scalps in the most emphatic manner.

The Australians thought they had McKenzie on 37 when he fended at Cummins and a review was used to challenge the not out call for a catch behind, only for closer inspection to show the left-hander was nowhere near close to edging the ball.

But Kavem Hodge, returning in triumph to make his Test debut in the city where he lived as a 17-year-old member of the Darren Lehmann Cricket Academy in 2010, fell for the same temptation as Chanderpaul and paid the same price by slicing a hot chance to Green.

That brought the middle-order implosion Australia had anticipated when they opted to bowl this morning, becoming the first team to do so in a Test at Adelaide since England six years ago when they slumped to a 120-run defeat.

Immediately after McKenzie notched his maiden Test half-century from 91 balls faced (with seven boundaries), he edged to Alex Carey pushing forward to another ball from Hazlewood that held its line.

It triggered a spectacular, if not altogether unexpected collapse in which the West Indies lost 5-26 from 53 balls with most of those dismissals coming through poor shot selection which was at odds with the disciplined defence shown by batters higher up.

Greaves’ maiden innings ended in circumstances as forgettable as his fellow debutant’s bowling was memorable when he slapped a chest-high catch to mid-off, followed soon after by Da Silva’s miscued pull shot that left his solid century in last week’s tour game a mere memory.

The ugliest capitulation came from left-arm spinner Motie who, with his team 7-133 and facing a seriously under-par first innings total, stepped away to leg and tried to flay Starc over cover only to sky a catch limply to point.

When Alzarri Joseph pushed hard at Cummins and presented Smith with catching practice in the slips, it seemed it was a generous sighter given the new opener was destined to be at the crease within minutes.

However, Roach and his new-ball partner showed the discipline of which their skipper repeatedly spoke pre-match, and a determination to tough it out that other more credentialled teammates might want to study, in defying Australia’s frustrated attack for an hour.

Joseph displayed his appetite for the fight when, with just six to his name, he was pinned by a searing Starc bouncer that he didn’t come close to defending or evading as it smashed into the grille of his protective batting helmet thereby saving him from a smashed jaw.

After a change of equipment and a thumbs up to the concerned bowler to show he was good to continue, Joseph played the innings of his life before producing the ball he’ll never forget.

The 24-year-old clubbed the first six of his six-match first-class career to date, a memorable strike over mid-wicket that landed Hazlewood in the first level of the famous ground’s Sir Donald Bradman Pavilion.

That blow came en route to his highest first-class score (previously 20) as he contributed the second-best score of his team’s innings with 36 from just 41 balls before being trapped lbw by Nathan Lyon.

The pair’s last-wicket stand of 55 from 83 balls was the best for West Indies against Australia since Brendan Nash and Ravi Rampaul’s 68 at the same venue 14 years ago, and lifted them to a total that seemed unthinkable at 9-133.

But as events transpired, it was only the second-most notable contribution Shamar Joseph made on his first day as a Test cricketer.