Lyon dropped, Hope takes stunning catch, Smith annoyed by lights — quick hits from West Indies vs Australia
Here are the quick hits from the day-night Test in Jamaica.
Nathan Lyon was dropped on two tours in 2013 — in India and England — but since then the off-spinner has been one of the first names on the Australian team sheet as he has climbed to seventh among all Test wicket-takers.
He is sitting on 562, third among Australians and one behind Glenn McGrath, but will have to wait until this summer's Ashes to try to claim second place after he was left out of the team for the third Test in Jamaica.
Pat Cummins and selectors opted for an all-pace attack with the pink ball under lights at Sabina Park, with Scott Boland coming in for his first Test since January.
A calf injury sidelined him for three games in 2023, but this marked the first time in 12 years that a fully fit Lyon missed a Test since that 2013 Ashes series in England.
Sam Konstas and Usman Khawaja looked pretty scratchy in the opening overs in Kingston.
That almost came to a head in the fifth over when Konstas clipped to square leg and took off for a single, only for Khawaja to rightly send him back.
But Konstas was already committed and could only watch as John Campbell ran around, gathered the ball and threw at the striker's stumps, just missing.
Not content with being gifted a second life, Konstas then asked for and received a third when he drove at a ball outside off and got a thick edge into the slips cordon.
It flew in between debutant Kevlon Anderson and Justin Greaves, with the rookie diving and sticking his left hand out at third slip. The ball bounced out and actually hit Greaves at second slip, but it couldn't be reined in.
It was the 10th dropped catch for the West Indies in the series.
It was a first session of grit from the Australians, who were much more focused on preservation than run-scoring.
Both in desperate need of scores, Konstas and Khawaja poked and prodded, played and missed to score just 21 in the opening hour.
Not long after drinks, Konstas was caught plumb in front to Justin Greaves's very first delivery of the match.
It always looked out, but after consultation with his opening partner, he decided to send it upstairs.
Sure enough, three reds meant Australia had burnt a review and that might have been playing on Cam Green's mind only a matter of overs later.
Given out to one that looked much more likely to be overturned, Green waited until the very last second to ask the third umpire to have a look at it.
Thankfully for Green, the technology projected the delivery to be sliding down leg and the big number three was handed a life.
Khawaja had his fair share of luck in his painstaking innings of 23 from 92 deliveries.
He gritted his teeth and stood his ground through a colourful catalogue of plays and misses, and when he finally did get an edge on an angling Shamar Joseph special, he looked destined to survive that as well.
With the ball flying towards that uncomfortable gap between wicket-keeper and first slip, West Indies WK Shai Hope made the executive decision to fling himself forward, left and to the ball.
Fully outstretched, Hope managed to get his weaker glove underneath the fast-falling pink Dukes and Khawaja's uncomfortable vigil was over before sundown on day one.
Sabina Park received an upgrade in order to host a day-nighter, but there wasn't much time to test all the various bits and pieces involved before the third Test.
Steve Smith, the ultimate problem solver and finder, discovered a quirk of the ground as the lights took effect straight after dinner.
As he took his guard against Shamar Joseph, Smith took issue with something behind the bowler's arm, which is nothing new for him. But this time it wasn't an inattentive fan, rather an issue with the big analog clock.
One of the floodlights was causing a reflection or some glare off the clock face and distracting the Australian star.
Eventually, a match official, with some help from an Australian team staff member, found a massive black towel to cover up the offending timepiece and the game could finally resume.
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24 minutes ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
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The Age
25 minutes ago
- The Age
Worst in 41 years: Konstas makes another duck in latest nightmare ahead of Ashes
Right now, Konstas isn't just a walking wicket – he's a walking headline. This was meant to be his coming-of-age tour, the way India 2004 was for Michael Clarke. But all the talk of flat West Indian pitches never materialised. This has been a bizarre Test, with 15 wickets falling on day two. Australia scraped their way to 6-99 in their second innings, to lead the West Indies by 181 runs after Scott Boland's three-wicket haul helped the visitors roll the home side for 143. Another three-day match beckons. Australian wickets fell like flies under lights as Konstas (0), Khawaja (14), Steve Smith (5), Travis Head (16) and Beau Webster (13) perished cheaply. Cam Green's unbeaten 42 was the equivalent of a hundred on a flat pitch. The biggest story of the day, however, has already been written five times in this series. As soon as Konstas edged to Roston Chase in the gully, off Shamar Joseph, there was stunned silence among Australian fans who'd flown to the other side of the world to see a player hailed as a generational talent. From six innings in the Caribbean, Konstas has made 50 runs at 8.33 – and was dropped three times. He also should have been run out on day one here. Not since 1984 – when Steve Smith (41 runs at 8.2) and Wayne Phillips (45 runs at 7.5) endured lean runs at the top of the order – has an Australian opener made fewer runs across three Tests in a series. The fall from Boxing Day glory has been profound for a cricketer who now looks lost at Test level. Since that late Christmas present – a sparkling 60 from 65 balls that helped the nation fall in love with Konstas – he has managed 103 Test runs from nine innings at an average of 11.44. His overall Test average is 16.3. In the Sheffield Shield, Konstas then made scores of 3, 22, 10, 17, 6, 50, 5 and 68. It is there he must now stake his claim to remain at the top of the order for the Ashes. The prospect of Konstas facing Jofra Archer with the first ball of the Ashes on November 21 – potentially delivered at 155km/h – doesn't feel like a fair fight. Within half an hour of Konstas walking off Sabina Park, Cricket Australia released its domestic schedule. There will be four rounds of Sheffield Shield before the Ashes opener, with Konstas' NSW side set to play Western Australia (October 4-7), Victoria (October 15-18), Queensland (October 28 to 31) and another match against Victoria at the SCG (November 10 to 13). For all of Konstas' struggles, there's not much those around him can do. His father and brother have been on tour offering support, while his batting coach Tahmid Islam was in Barbados. Australian skipper Pat Cummins has fostered a strong environment for Konstas and insists he'll be given time to prosper. Loading Cummins and McDonald were seated together in the Australian viewing area when Konstas registered his fifth single-digit score from 10 innings. Selector Tony Dodemaide wasn't far away. Usman Khawaja also has Konstas to thank. If not for the teenager's troubles, more heat would be on the 38-year-old. Aside from a score of 47, it's been a poor series: 117 runs at 19.5, with his latest innings of 14 again unconvincing. That is a conversation for another day.
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2 hours ago
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