Australia’s otherwise comfortable Test win over West Indies might have come at a cost after opener Usman Khawaja was forced to retire hurt with one run required to win, having been struck a blow to the chin by rookie West Indies quick Shamar Joseph.
Khawaja was surprised by a 138kph bouncer that skidded through from around the wicket and drew blood from the left-hander as he attempted to turn his head from the line of the ball and was struck on the chin.
He appeared to take the blow on the jaw line as the ball clipped his right shoulder and evaded the grille of his protective helmet.
As concerned West Indian rivals and his new opening partner Steve Smith checked on Khawaja’s welfare, Australia’s team doctor examined the 37-year-old and after several minutes escorted him from the field as Marnus Labuschagne took his place at the crease.
Labuschagne scored the winning runs two balls later, but the broader issue is whether Khawaja’s injury will keep him out of the next Test that starts in his home city of Brisbane next week.
It was also the sole hiccup in Australia’s 10-wicket win that came as they chased down the token target of 26 in barely half an hour’s batting to take a 1-0 lead in the two-Test NRMA Insurance Series and thereby retain the Frank Worrell Trophy.
And while West Indies can point to the unearthing of a new find in rookie fast bowler Shamr Joseph, who backed up his five wickets on debut by contributing valuable runs at number 11 in both innings, the brutal reality is they face an uphill task to be competitive in the second Test starting at the Gabba next Thursday.
Australia’s victory push, which looked slightly shaky at 5-128 in their first innings early yesterday, was headed by seamer Josh Hazlewood who followed his 4-44 on day one with second-innings figures of 5-35 today.
Since the start of Pakistan’s second innings of the SCG Pink Test earlier this month, Hazlewood has snared 13 batters at an extraordinary average of 7.3 runs per wicket, and become the 11th Australia men’s player to reach 250 Test scalps in the process.
He also completed his 11th five-wicket bag and led his team from the field in front of almost 17,000 fans before new opening pair Smith and Khawaja began their pursuit of the nominal 26-run victory target at 11.15am local time.
West Indies last won a Test in Australia 27 years ago, when they recorded a 10-wicket victory at the WACA Ground in the last match of a series Mark Taylor’s team had already secured.
Since then, the once-feared outfit have drawn two Tests and lost 14 with the closest they’ve come to success being the 35-run defeat also in Perth during the 2008-09 when their current opening bowler Kemar Roach forced then-Australia skipper Ricky Ponting to retire hurt for the only time in his storied career.
But amid those 14 losses on Australia turf have been four by an innings, three by five wickets or more and a further three by at least 300 runs.
It explains West Indies captain Kraigg Brathwaite, in the lead-up to this match, exhorted his men to show strong discipline, fight and “make West Indians proud
And for the first day and a half, that characterised the visitors’ efforts in a game they were always going to find a challenge given the vast disparity in the respective line-ups.
“To be honest, the learning curve has been pretty steep for some of them,” West Indies coach Andre Coley assessed after his team ended yesterday’s disastrous final session 6-73.
“The pitches here have been very different to back home, so our intent to score has always been evident.
“What that has to be matched with is decision-making.
“Here there’s a lot more bounce potentially, the ability to leave the ball more consistently has to be part of your repertoire and approach.
“But generally I thought our intent was pretty good, our decision-making was questionable on occasions.”
To provide some context, the least experienced member of Australia’s XI is 24-year-old allrounder Cameron Green who was playing his 25th Test, which is the same number as West Indies keeper Joshua Da Silva who is the fourth-most experienced member of his team.
With seven players boasting an aggregate of 15 prior Tests heading into this game, Da Silva and his fellow veterans – Brathwaite, Roach and vice-captain Alzarri Joseph – were expected to carry a lion’s share of the responsibility.
And yet it was debutant Shamar Joseph (five wickets) and third-gamer Kirk McKenzie (50 and 26) who shone brightest in this game while the older hands struggled to make an impact.
Da Silva had spoken after stumps yesterday when he was unbeaten on 17 and indicated he would fight doggedly to help carry West Indies into surplus and extend their lead as far as possible, yet he was first to fall today when he was caught on the leg side boundary for the second time in the match.
That was 16 minutes into the third morning with his team still 11 runs short of making Australia bat again, and with only the bowlers remaining to try and ensure that happened.
Alzarri Joseph and spinner Gudakesh Motie narrowed the gap to a solitary run but, the ball after Joesph slashed Starc over the slips cordon for a boundary, he wafted at a length ball and was caught behind.
In Hazlewood’s next over, Motie’s watchful 24-minute stay ended when he watched a delivery sent down from around the wicket cannon into his off stump without any attempt to obstruct its progress.
It was therefore left to Shamar Joseph to take the game into a fourth innings, which the debutant duly did when he slapped the first ball he faced from Hazlewood to the cover boundary.
The West Indies’ final pair added a further three boundaries as they stretched the lead past 20 and even the day’s first drinks break, but their resistance ended immediately after that interval when Joseph charged down the pitch at Nathan Lyon and was comprehensively stumped.
