Marnus Labuschagne and Travis Head hit unbeaten centuries as Australia reached a total of 330/3 against West Indies on Day 1 of the ongoing second day-night Test at the Adelaide Oval.
The importance of the captain in cricket can often be overstated. West Indies introduced the spin of Roston Chase inside the 10th over with no success.
Kraigg Brathwaite earned universal respect for his gutsy efforts with the bat in the first Test in Perth but some of his decisions on day one of the second clash were doubtful.
After losing the toss and being told to have a bowl first at the batting paradise of the Adelaide Oval, Brathwaite handed the new ball to his talented quick in Alzarri Joseph.
The Australian openers got off to a flyer and raced to 34 by the end of the ninth over when David Warner flayed at a wide Joseph delivery to nick off for 21.
The ICC’s newly Rank No.1 Test batter was coming to the wicket while the New Pitch still had some bounce and shine about it.
And what did Brathwaite do? Next delivery up the other end, Roston Chase was called on to deliver his pedestrian offies which had yielded one wicket from 37 overs for the cost of 171 runs in Perth.
The only time a spinner ever gets to roll the arm over this early in a Test is when the pitch is a raging turner. This wicket was nothing of the sort.
As a result of it, Usman Khwaja and Labuschagne steadied the ship, adding 95 runs for the second wicket.
After afternoon tea, Khawaja was dismissed on 62 off medium-pacer Devon Thomas. Steve Smith fell two runs later off Jason Holder, the Aussies were 3-131 and the West indies clearly had the upper hand.
However, The bowling was benign and the skipper’s terrible tactics again let the pressure off for Australia batters with bring on spinners.
🗣️ Ricky Ponting on the West Indies’ bowling leading into tea #AUSvWI pic.twitter.com/A1GlYIApcI
— 7Cricket (@7Cricket) December 8, 2022
Labuschagne was then joined by Head in the middle as the pair went on to add an unbeaten 199 runs for the fourth wicket.
Ricky Ponting and Justin Langer on Seven commentary were perplexed.
These two Aussie icons were renowned for never giving a sucker an even break and they also couldn’t see any logic behind Brathwaite’s negativity.
“It is rubbish bowling. They’ve just given away 30 runs,” Ponting fumed. “They built the pressure up, Jason Holder’s done the job that he’s done, Devon Thomas gets the breakthrough, Smith gets the duck. And then going into the tea break they’re happy to give 30 or 40 runs away.
“Six overs (of spin) in tandem and they’ve already conceded 38 runs. Jason Holder will be absolutely spewing. Bent his back, did everything right, disciplined, executed really well, only for this to happen.”
When you’re the captain of a team that is missing key players due to injury after already being a rank outsider against a star-studded opponent, the default position is to be as defensive as possible as early as possible.
But trying to play for a draw from the first hour of a Test is rarely going to work.
Labuschagne was batting 120 while Head was unbeaten on 114.