West Indies have been set a daunting victory target of 301 after Australia were dismissed for 310 on the stroke of tea on the third day of the first Test at Kensington Oval on Friday.
Shamar Joseph led the home side’s bowling effort with five wickets for the cost of 87 runs to finish with match figures of 9-133.
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Australia’s recovery from the perilous position of 65-4 late on day two was engineered by half-centuries from Travis Head, Beau Webster and Alex Carey.
Wicketkeeper-batsman Carey did the bulk of the scoring in a productive afternoon session for the visitors before he was ninth out for a top score of 65.
With a clear intent on aggression on a pitch becoming increasingly two-paced, the Australians progressed at almost a run-a-minute after lunch despite wickets falling at regular intervals.
Carey, whose innings occupied 75 balls, built on the platform laid by Head and Webster, who batted through most of the morning in a 102-run fifth-wicket partnership — the first century stand of the match.
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Head was trapped lbw for 61 by Shamar Joseph 20 minutes before lunch.
However, the course of the first session could have been very different had Justin Greaves held on to another straightforward catch at second slip off Alzarri Joseph when Head was on 22.
This was the seventh chance put down by the West Indies slip cordon in the match — a poor display in one of the fundamental aspects of the game which began on day one when four catches were shelled.
That error within the first half-hour of the day’s play seemed to deflate the Caribbean side, and Webster, then partnered by Carey, was able to turn the screw by putting on 41 for the sixth wicket before falling for 63, caught behind off Shamar Joseph.
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The right-armer also accounted for Mitchell Starc and wrapped up the innings when last man Josh Hazlewood was bowled off the inside edge to give the Guyanese pacer his fourth five-wicket haul and third against Australia.
Putting his faith almost entirely in his pacemen, skipper Roston Chase only introduced the West Indies’ lone specialist spinner, Jomel Warrican, for his first bowl of the match when Head and Webster were within sight of the 100-run mark in their partnership during a frustrating morning for the home side.
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