[Watch] West Indies pace sensation Shamar Joseph celebrates five-fer in maiden home Test
Young West Indian pace sensation celebrated his home Test debut with an incredible five-wicket haul on Day 1 of the second Test against South Africa in Guyana on Thursday, August 15. The 24-year-old missed out on playing the series opener but replaced fellow pacer Kemar Roach for the second and deciding Test.
Joseph broke the back of the Proteas batting lineup with the wickets of opener Aiden Markram and skipper Temba Bavuma in the same over to start the procession. The youngster removed a well-set David Bedingham for 28 and picked up his fourth wicket by dismissing Keshav Maharaj for a two-ball duck.
Joseph finally completed his five-fer by cleaning up wicketkeeper Kyle Verreynne for 21 and set off on a celebratory run in front of the thrilled home fans.
Here is a video of him completing his five-wicket haul followed by the celebrations:
Joseph has made an unbelievable start to his Test career with a third five-wicket haul in only his sixth outing.
The speedster picked up figures of 5/94 in his debut Test against Australia in Adelaide earlier this year. Joseph followed that with an extraordinary spell of 7/68 in the final innings of the second Test at Brisbane to help the West Indies script a famous eight-wicket win and level the two-match Test series at 1-1.
Playing only his sixth Test, Joseph already has 22 wickets at an excellent average of 23.50.
West Indies in trouble despite Shamar Joseph's heroics
Despite Shamar Joseph's magnificent spell of fast bowling that reduced South Africa to 97/9 in the first innings of the second Test. But the day ended with the West Indies in trouble.
The Proteas stretched their first-innings score to 160, thanks to a 63-run final-wicket partnership between Dane Piedt and Nandre Burger. The South African bowlers then wreaked havoc on the home batters by reducing them to an unenviable 56/6 in their first essay.
West Indies finally displayed some resistance with former skipper Jason Holder and spinner Gudakesh Motie adding 41 runs for the seventh wicket. However, the latter fell in what turned out to be the final ball of the day to leave the hosts 97/7 at stumps on the opening day, 63 behind the South African first-innings total.
On a day dominated by the pace bowlers, who picked up 15 out of the 17 wickets to fall, Jayden Seales, Nandre Burger, and Wiaan Mulder enjoyed their share of the shine with three, two, and four wickets, respectively.