Australia asserted their dominance over West Indies on Day 1 of the first Test on Wednesday, January 17 at the Adelaide Oval, Adelaide as they bundled out the visitors for 188 in the first innings. The day began well for the Australian skipper Pat Cummins who won the toss and invited West Indies to bat first. Cummins vindicated his decision as he got rid of the West Indies opener Tagnarine Chanderpaul (6 off 25) in the tenth over.
He further got rid of captain Kraigg Brathwaite in the 14th over to leave West Indies on 27/2. Kirk McKenzie walked in at number three and held one end battling through the vicious spell by Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood. The duo didn’t let any batter occupy the crease for long as Alick Athanaze (13 off 31), Kavem Hodge (12 off 36), Justin Greaves (5 off 9) and Joshua Da Silva (6 off 22) departed cheaply leaving their team reeling at 132/7.
However, McKenzie continued to occupy the crease and registered his first half-century in the longest format in his second Test. His fifty and some late flourish from Shamar Joseph (36 off 41) helped West Indies reach 188 as they got bundled out for 62.1 overs.
Pat Cummins (4/41) and Josh Hazlewood (4/44) were the pick of the bowlers from Australia with both picking four wickets each. As a result, West Indies were all out in the final session of the day and Australia came out to begin their first innings.
Steven Smith’s first innings as an opener didn’t turn out to be a memorable one as he got dismissed by debutant Shamar Joseph for 12 (26). The right-arm seamer also got the prized scalp of Marnus Labuschagne (10 off 25) to give Australia two blows in the last session.
The hosts finished the day on 59/2 after 21 overs with Usman Khawaja (30* off 54) and Cameron Green (6* off 22) at the crease.
