agence france-press
Hobart, Dec 11: Nathan Lyon (3/43) put the skids under the flailing West Indies as Australia set course for an overwhelming early victory despite Darren Bravo (94 batting, 159b, 17×4) holding on in the first Test here Friday.
At the close of a stop-start day through showers, the Windies were 207 for six with Bravo and Kemar Roach (31 batting) at the crease. They have so far put on 91 runs for the seventh wicket after it looked that the visitors will not be able to cross the 150-run mark.
Lyon claimed two wickets in one over to trigger a middle-order collapse to have the West Indies in familiar trouble in their chase after a mammoth declaration of 583 for four on the second day. The probing off-spinner snared the wickets of Marlon Samuels and Jermaine Blackwood in his seventh over along with opener Rajendra Chandrika for 175 Test wickets to leave the hapless Caribbean tourists struggling to avoid a heavy defeat with three days left.
The West Indies efforts were in sharp contrast to Australia’s run spree, propelled by a world record 449-run fourth-wicket stand by Adam Voges (269 n o, 285b, 33×4) and Shaun Marsh (182, 266b, 15×4, 1×6). The West Australian pair eclipsed the fourth-wicket Test record of 437 set by Sri Lankans Thilan Samaraweera and Mahela Jayawardene against Pakistan in 2009.
It was also the biggest Test stand by Australians at home, bettering the 405-run fifth-wicket partnership by Sid Barnes and Don Bradman against England at Sydney in 1946.
Voges also posted Australia’s highest score against the West Indies with an unbeaten 269, eclipsing Doug Walters’ 242 in 1969.
