Josh Hazlewood is in pursuit of his first ever ten-wicket haul in a Test match after a blistering five over spurt against the West Indies on Day 2 resulted in figures of 4-2.
Australia have the potential to wrap up the first Test against a struggling Windies outfit at the Adelaide Oval within a couple of hours on Day 3.
The Windies finished play yesterday at 6-73 in their second innings, still 22 runs behind the Aussies total.
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Hazlewood ripped through the West Indies batting order, taking his first three wickets for no runs. He finished the day with figures of 4-18 off eight overs.
After taking four wickets in the first innings, Hazlewood needs two of the last four scalps to complete his first ever ten-wicket haul in Test cricket.
Speaking at the end of the day’s play, Hazlewood says the depth of the Aussie bowling line up makes it a tough task to snare five wickets in a match, let alone ten.
“It’s hard to take five or ten wickets with this bowling attack,” Hazlewood told Triple M.
“Cummo’s (Pat Cummins) pretty quick at getting a few, Starcy (Mitch Starc) and then Gaz (Nathan Lyon) as well.
“We like to share it around.”
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Former Aussie quick Brett Lee lauded Hazlewood’s performance on Day 2, believing his consistency is his most impressive attribute.
“Hazlewood was outstanding,” Lee said on Fox Cricket.
“He’s bowling good pace, up to 140km/h. But it’s the length he bowls, that consistent length.
“He can land a ball on a hankerchief
“The reason why Josh Hazlewood’s got wickets in this match is because of where he lands the ball and his consistency. He doesn’t miss bullseye very often.”
Travis Head was the star of the show amongst the batsmen, blasting his 7th Test hundred in front of his home crowd.
Head accounted for 119 of Australia’s first innings total of 283. The next best was Usman Khawaja (45).
For the visitors, Shamar Joseph has been the lone bright spot.
The 24-year-old completed a five-wicket haul on debut when knocking over Nathan Lyon.
In addition to the quick fire 36 he scored with the bat on Day 1, Joseph finished with the figures of 5/94 from 20 overs.
PLAYING XIs
Australia: Usman Khawaja, Steve Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, Cameron Green, Travis Head, Mitch Marsh, Alex Carey (wk), Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins (c), Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood
West Indies: Kraigg Brathwaite (c), Tagenarine Chanderpaul, Kirk McKenzie, Alick Athanaze, Kavem Hodge, Justin Greaves, Joshua Da Silva (wk), Gudakesh Motie, Alzarri Joseph, Shamar Joseph, Kemar Roach
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