Mighty Australia thrash West Indies in Jamaica
Australia secured a comprehensive 2-0 series victory against the West Indies side by winning the final Test by 277 runs. It finally became a one-sided game when Australian bowling attack started to seriously wrap-up things on the final day at the Sabina Park, Kingston.
West Indies started 4th Day on 23 for 2 while chasing a mammoth 392 target. But the early two wickets proved costly because no other batsmen showed confidence to stay back and control the rally till the finish line.
Lethal Mitchell Starc dented the Windies innings first when he cleaned their top order by taking Kraigg Brathwaite, Rajendra Chandrika, and Shane Dowrich’s wickets. Soon, it was all come and go for the home team batsmen as Josh Hazlewood, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Johnson, and Shane Watson didn’t leave anything and shared the 7 wickets.
Windies were all out at just 114 runs with their last innings top-scorer being captain Denesh Ramdin with 29 runs off patient 104 deliveries. Aussies were completely seen dominating the series at almost every point; they didn’t leave a single gap for the West Indies players to breathe throughout their way.
This was Australia’s second-largest margin victory in the Caribbean Islands. The Frank Worrell Trophy stays with the Kangaroos and for West Indies, it is a long way to go. They have shown the courage when they defeated England in the last home series, but against the mighty Australian attack, they failed miserably.
Visitors captain, Michael Clarke in an after match conference, said that it’s a fantastic achievement for his boys as they played really for this.
"To win the first one in three days and this one in four days is a fantastic achievement; we've obviously played really well here. We've got another tough series coming up in England, but right now it's about enjoying the success we've had here in the West Indies,” said Clarke.
"I think we played some really good cricket throughout this series in both Test matches. It was nice to see the batters make the runs and the bowlers bowl as well as they have.
"The bowlers were exceptional throughout this series on wickets that were quite slow. There wasn't much pace and bounce there for the fast bowlers, but I thought they worked really hard."
It was an easy decision to choose the Man-of-the-Match as Steven Smith who made 199 runs in the 1st innings was the honored player. The series award went to Hazlewood for 12 wickets from the 56.5 overs he bowled overall.
Next up, Australia will head to England with full confidence for the Ashes series and West Indies players might get have a refreshing time as the Caribbean Premier League is scheduled to start in a week time.