It took a day and half and virtuoso performances from local hero Travis Head and Adealide Oval specialist Josh Hazlewood, but Australia’s weight of experience crushed the West Indies as they took control of the first NRMA Insurance Test.

The unrelenting pressure applied to what is effectively a talented but untried provincial team cracked the West Indies during a defining final session in which they crashed to 4-19 before finishing 6-73 and still 22 runs in arrears at the close of day two.

Their position was made more dire after last recognised batter Justin Greaves was adjudged lbw to Nathan Lyon on the evening’s final delivery, a decision originally given not out but overturned on review.

It’s just over 12 months since they were knocked over for 77 in their second innings at the same ground to complete a 419-run loss early on day three, and that was with a team that claimed considerably greater Test expertise than the current iteration.

Hometown hero Head delights Adelaide with rapid 119
Initially, it was Head’s second century in as many Tests on his home turf where he now averages more than 70 at the elite level that gave Australia the advantage on a pitch where no other batter has looked comfortable let alone productive.

Then it was Hazlewood’s immaculate new-ball spell that netted four wickets in the blink of an eye for barely the addition of a run that ensured only a bottom-order miracle and some equally inspired day three bowling can push the game past lunch tomorrow.

Every ball of Hazlewood’s elite five-over, four-wicket burst
Hazlewood’s record at Adelaide Oval is remarkable, with 40 wickets at 16.8, which is the best of any Test bowler to have played more than three matches and taken multiple wickets at the historic venue.

Up until today’s tea break, the Windies held brave hopes their disciplined bowling and often dazzling catching might allow them to push the reigning World Test champions despite the reality most of their team boasts no pedigree in the five-day game.

The scale of the fairytale was encapsulated by 24-year-old fast bowler Shamar Joseph who, after posting his highest first-class score and hitting his maiden six in his team’s first innings, etched his name on the Adelaide Oval honours board today.

Shamar-vellous! Joseph takes lion-hearted debut five-for
Joseph’s dream debut became even more fabled, as he claimed Cameron Green’s wicket in his first over on his second day as a Test cricketer and finished with 5-94, making him the first West Indies bowler since Fidel Edwards in 2003 to take a five-for in his maiden innings.

But with Australia eight wickets down and just 72 runs ahead at today’s final adjournment, the lead was extended to 95 before history repeated with a second innings implosion of epic proportions.

Rather like Joseph’s freshly minted five-for, the writing was on the wall when opening pair Kraigg Brathwaite and Tagenarine Chanderpaul – the only specialist batters in the line-up to have experienced at least four Test matches – fell inside the first four overs.

Chanderpaul’s first Test duck was of the gold variety, forced to push forward at Hazlewood’s opening offering that landed with pinpoint accuracy to the left-hander who was compelled to play and almost as likely to nick it.

In Hazlewood’s next over, skipper Brathwaite – whose hundred at Perth last summer resembled an ancient relic – defended a delivery from Hazlewood that seamed sufficiently to take the bat’s inner edge and squirt to short square leg where Head held a neat catch to complete a red-letter day.

Head’s perfect day continues with short-leg brilliance
From there it seemed Hazlewood, who confessed his liking for the Adelaide pitch and its “thatch” grass cover after scything through the West Indies middle-order yesterday, might wrap up the match in his opening spell.

After Alick Athanaze was caught off his glove the ball after Australia’s unsuccessful review for a nick behind, debutant Kavem Hodge drove into the hands of Steve Smith at slip and Hazlewood boasted a scarcely believable 4-2 from four and a half overs.

Some brave defiance from first-innings top scorer Kirk McKenzie saw the Hazlewood threat rested, but he was replaced by Green who with his second ball had the aggressive left-hander slap a catch to cover.

With their top five batters back in the shed for 40 runs, and still 55 behind with almost an hour to play on day two, the West Indies were forced to dig deep to delay, if not totally avoid, an abject disaster.

Australia had been squirming uneasily at 3-67 and still 121 runs adrift of West Indies’ first innings when Head went to the wicket following Green’s departure in the day’s second over.

Greaves pumped up for maiden Test wicket
Against a disciplined bowling outfit that was aided by the healthy grass cover that has aided seam movement across the first two days, Head found runs tough to come by as wickets fell regularly at the other end.

He aimed a couple of his favoured square cuts early but failed to make contact, and the ever-present movement from the surface brought just as many inside edges that might have jagged back on to his stumps.

The left-hander also survived a prolonged lbw shout when on 37, that was shown to be shaving leg stump and thereby remained not out as ‘umpire’s call’, and almost popped a catch to short mid-wicket off a leading edge immediately after lunch.

But the 30-year-old refused to be bowed by the challenging conditions, and on those rare occasions the West Indies bowlers erred in length or line he pounced before exploding in an array of expansive shots having reached his century shortly before tea.

His seventh Test ton snapped a streak of nine innings in which he failed to reach 50, although he had plundered a couple of blazing hundreds in the recent World Cup including his match-winning knock in the final.

Upon reaching 15 today, Head notched 3,000 Test runs but it was shortly after his innings truly got going when he latched on to a short ball from another debutant, Justin Greaves, and heaved it into the euphoric members’ enclosure at his home ground.

It was one of three sixes he belted along with 12 boundaries in an innings made more remarkable by the fact no other batter across the first two days has got past 50.

He reached his milestone moment, which followed the 175 he piled on against the same opponent on the same patch last summer, with suitable flourish via a wristy drive to the cover point boundary off left-arm spinner Gudakesh Motie.

With only the Australia bowlers to lend batting support by that stage, Head then launched a series of hefty swings that brought consecutive sixes off Shamar Joseph and almost a catch to long-on attempting a third before he finally holed out to deep mid-wicket for 119.

By that stage, Australia’s lead – which was no guarantee at 5-128 when Mitchell Marsh was brilliantly caught out by a well-executed fielding strategy – had grown to 67 and eventually reached 95 thanks to a breezy 24 (from 34 balls) by Lyon.

Canny field placement nets Windies Marsh’s wicket
But Australia’s ascendancy had been hard-earned, and their batting early on day four betrayed a team that was feeling the pressure of being squeezed by a rival given no chance coming into this game but which stubbornly refused to conform to expectations.

After Green’s first stint as a number four batter brought consecutive boundaries from the day’s second over – one squeezed past gully, and the next a sweet punch through mid-wicket – he feathered the next to send Shamar Joseph on his now familiar celebratory sprint.

Usman Khawaja loomed as the mainstay of a wobbling Australia batting effort, but found runs near impossible having been granted a reprieve on three the previous evening when keeper Joshua Da Silva put down a low chance to his left off Alzarri Joseph.

But the veteran opener could not capitalise on the gift, and after Greaves sent down seven balls from which the normally fluent left-hander could find only a single he reached for a full delivery and squeezed a chance to second slip where Athanaze completed a catch as difficult as Da Silva’s was easy.

It was Greaves’ turn to celebrate a maiden Test wicket, and when an inspired plan for Marsh brought an instant result, the jubilation among the visitors was palpable.

Noting Marsh was jamming down hard as Kemar Roach targeted his front pad, Brathwaite moved a catcher to third slip but so close to the bat he was forced to don a protective helmet, but the intuition that any edge would not carry to a regulation position was proved unerring straight away.

Home-town heroes Head and Carey forged an invaluable 24-run stand during which the former posted a half-century to a rapturous response from the Adelaide crowd before Carey became the latest to edge a delivery that nipped late from the surface.

The resulting catch somehow stuck in the fingertips of rival keeper Da Silva’s gloves which took the Trinidadian to 100 career dismissals in Tests, but that was about the last moment of West Indian joy before the grisly reality of the final two hours.