Hazlewood's Heroics Lead Australia to Convincing Test Victory Over West Indies
Australia Defeats West Indies by 10 Wickets in First Test; Hazlewood's 5-Wicket Haul Impressive
Australia defeated the West Indies by 10 wickets on Friday before lunch on the third day of the first Test, with Josh Hazlewood taking his 11th five-wicket haul in Test matches.
In the 13th over of the day on Friday, Australia dismissed the West Indies for 120 runs, meaning that the home team would only need to win by 26 runs.
Australia comfortably reached that score with the help of Steve Smith (11) and Usman Khawaja (9); however, Khawaja had to retire injured after being struck by a bouncer when Australia needed only one run to win. After two balls, Marnus Labuschagne scored the winning run.
At the beginning of the second day, Hazlewood was already four for eighteen, having helped Australia restrict the West Indies to 73/6 in their second innings before to stumping. After scoring 283 against the West Indies' 188 in their first innings, Australia was up by 95 runs.
"Having the weekend off this week is good. Playing on that wicket is enjoyable as a team, according to Hazlewood.
"I thought I bowled just as well without producing any results in the first part of the summer. The pressure simply keeps getting higher when playing with this squad, and the wickets have been excellent.
"It was a wicket where you always felt like there might be a ball that nips," said Australia skipper Pat Cummins. "You were in the game even when someone was scoring a few runs." This week, Hazlewood, the big guy, really turned it on for us.
Whether the West Indies could force Australia to bat again was the main issue at the beginning of the day. Mitchell Starc's removal of Joshua da Silva (18) and Alzarri Joseph (16), together with Hazlewood's dismissal of Gudakesh Motie (3), made it seem improbable. This left the West Indies at 94/9, requiring one more run to win by an innings.
After combining for 55 runs in the first innings, Shamar Joseph and Kemar Roach once again staged a little comeback, contributing 26 for the last wicket. Joseph's 36 in the first innings and his 5/94 with the ball in his debut made him an instant star of the game.
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