On both sides of the lunch break, a tenacious 82-run stand between Chase (55) and Joseph (43) delayed the inevitable for 1 1/2 hours. At the Perth Stadium on Sunday, offspinner Nathan Lyon bowled Australia to a 164-run victory over the West Indies in the first cricket test to retain the Frank Worrell Trophy. Before tea on the final day, the West Indies were all out for 333 and Lyon claimed 6-128. In his 111th test, it was Lyon’s 21st five-wicket haul.
The visitors’ skipper Kraigg Brathwaite scored the most runs with an obsessive 110, but Roston Chase and Alzarri Joseph’s late-inning stand kept them from giving up after they fell to 233-7 in 17 overs in the morning. On both sides of the lunch break, a tenacious 82-run stand between Chase (55) and Joseph (43) delayed the inevitable for 1 1/2 hours. When he bowled Joseph, part-time offspinner Travis Head made the breakthrough.
After the lunch break, West Indies resumed play on 257-7 and batted for another 85 minutes before Lyon bowled No. 11 Kemar Roach (0) and caught Chase by Mitchell Starc in the outfield.
Chase occupied the crease for two frustrating hours with six and three fours off 72 balls for the Australians, who were without Pat Cummins in their bowling attack because the captain’s thigh injury prevented him from taking the ball.
Prior, West Indies lost the short-term sets of Brathwaite and Kyle Mayers (10) in the main hour of the day and oversaw just 24 runs in 15 overs as Australia choked West Indies’ advancement. ADVERT: The spinner got a delivery that turned sharply and beat Brathwaite all-out to claim the prized wicket after Mayers had edged a Lyon delivery that spun across him to Steve Smith at slip.
Brathwaite had scored his 11th test century in 80 appearances and hit 14 boundaries off 188 balls while defying Australia’s lauded bowling attack for just over five hours. Smith took a brilliant catch off part-time spinner Head (2-25) and fell to his left as the West Indies resistance plummeted after Jason Holder (3) went for a big drive and edged to Smith at slip.
Since beating Steve Waugh’s team in the fourth test of a dead rubber under the captaincy of Brian Lara in Antigua in May 2003, West Indies, once the powerhouse of world cricket, have not defeated Australia in 12 tests. Man of the Match Marnus Labuschagne was the first Australian since Greg Chappell in 1974 to score a double-hundred and a century in the same match.
He scored 204 in Australia’s 598-4 declared first innings and an unbeaten 104 not out in the second innings. In its first innings, West Indies scored 283 runs. Since May 1995, Australia has dominated the West Indies, going undefeated in 11 series. The second test, a day/night match, will take place on December 8 between the two teams in Adelaide.