Australia beats the West Indies by an innings and 212 runs
HOBART, Australia (AP) The warning signs were evident when a mostly full-strength West Indies lost a tour match by 10 wickets to a Cricket Australia selection with six players making their first-class debuts.
Against Australia's test team, ranked No.3 in the world, the mostly young and inexperienced players from the Caribbean never stood a chance, losing by an innings and 212 runs on Saturday inside three days at Bellerive Oval.
Fast bowler James Pattinson took five wickets in the second innings to complement fellow paceman Josh Hazlewood's four-wicket haul in the first. Offspin bowler Nathan Lyon, playing in his 50th test, took three vital first-innings wickets that placed the West Indies in early trouble.
And then there was the Australian batting.
Australia declared its first innings on 583-4 led by man of the match Adam Voges' unbeaten 269 and record 449-run fourth-wicket partnership with Shaun Marsh.
The West Indies were forced to follow-on earlier Saturday when they scored just 223-9 in their first innings - injured paceman Shannon Gabriel (left ankle) could not bat in either innings.
The match ended before tea Saturday when the West Indies - led by Darren Bravo's 108 in the first innings and Kraigg Brathwaite's 94 in the second - were bowled out for 148.
The West Indies lost 14 wickets in a session and a half Saturday, not helped by Gabriel's inability to bat. The team announced Saturday that Gabriel would return home due to the injury and a tour replacement would be named in the coming days.
Pattinson (5-27) took up where Hazlewood left off in a West Indies first innings dominated by Bravo's seventh test century. Pattinson's haul included the second-innings wicket of Bravo for four, ensuring the West Indies batsman was dismissed twice in 37 minutes.
It marked the fourth career five-wicket haul for Pattinson in his first test since March 2014.
The West Indies resumed on 207-6 Saturday morning in their first innings before Hazlewood (4-45) cleaned up the tail. Resuming on 94, Bravo hit two boundaries off Peter Siddle in the first over Saturday to reach the century mark.
Brathwaite tried vainly to notch a late century in the second innings, hitting four boundaries in a row, before being bowled by Hazlewood to end the match.
Australia's first innings was dominated by the record stand between Voges and Marsh (182).
''To win in the fashion we did and to put in such a dominating performance with Shaun was very pleasing,'' said Voges. ''We had a quiet beer last night and tapped each other on the shoulder and said `well done, mate.'''
Their partnership eclipsed the previous fourth-wicket world record of 437 set by Sri Lanka's Mahela Jayawardene and Thilan Samaraweera against Pakistan in Karachi in 2008.
''To win in three days was very satisfying,'' Australia captain Steve Smith said. ''It was a magnificent performance by that pairing - the game was in the balance when they came in and for them to put those figures up was invaluable for us.''
Smith said after the match he is suffering from knee pain and a hip strain and won't play in the Twenty20 Big Bash League for the Sydney Sixers before Christmas. He said he's ''no doubt'' for the second test beginning Dec. 26 in Melbourne.
West Indies captain Jason Holder said the big loss wasn't unfamiliar to him or a team hit by player strikes, pay disputes, coach suspensions and a decision by many of the top players to choose lucrative international Twenty20 league contracts over test duty.
''It's a situation we've been in for the past few months, the past few years, really,'' Holder said. ''We need to be more disciplined... to spend more time in the middle. Hopefully we can come back strong in the second test.''
Australia announced that Usman Khawaja had been recalled to the Australian squad for the remaining two tests, while all-rounder Steve O'Keefe will join an extended 14-man squad for the third test beginning Jan. 3 in Sydney.
