As the action-packed Day 2 of the pink-ball Test progressed in overcast Brisbane, Australia steadily clawed their way back into the game despite an epic top-order collapse triggered by Kemar Roach’s three-fer. West Indies gained ascendancy in the opening session on the back of Kevin Sinclair’s maiden Test fifty and a fiery opening spell of new-ball bowlers to reduce Australia to 24/4 in reply to their 311. What followed the collapse upfront was a series of gusty calls from the hosts to stay ahead of the curve, be it the aggressive batting approach of Alex Carey and Pat Cummins, or the proactive declaration to get a crack at the visitors’ fragile top-order in the crucial last hour of play.

Resuming from the overnight score of 266/8, it was Sinclair who had prolonged Australia’s misery on the field and their wait for the final tail-enders’ wickets. He was given a reprieve by Green at gully on 30 and was involved in the unfortunate run out of Roach. However, he carried on to raise a half-century on debut with back-to-back four and a six off Nathan Lyon. Sinclair ultimately departed the very next ball, stumped off the Australian spinner, but not before having taken West Indies past the morale-boosting 300-run mark.

Then, it was Roach’s triple strikes that put Australia under the pump perhaps for the first time in the series. Roach struck in his first over itself, trapping Steve Smith LBW on 6 although he had to use a review before celebrating. In his fifth over, the pacer lured Green into a drive with a full ball outside off that the Australian ended up chipping straight to mid-off. Travis Head then nicked behind first ball, triggering wild celebrations in the Windies camp. In between all this was the Marnus Labuschagne dismissal, pretty reminiscent of a few of the West Indies top-order wickets that fell yesterday. The Australian No.3 unnecessarily poked at one outside off and Sinclair pulled off a screamer diving to his right at fourth slip to give Alzarri Joseph the first of his four scalps in the day.

Pushed on the backfoot after losing four quick wickets, Australia walked out after Tea with a clear intent to take the attack to the opposition. Carey’s rapid 65 set the tone of the counterattack while Cummins hurt West Indies at the fag end with his career-best 64*. And all this while, Usman Khawaja’s patient 75 was the supporting act in the two momentum-turning partnerships of 96 and 81 respectively.

The signs of positive intent were evident from the way Mitch Marsh pounced at the width offered by Alzarri and slashed hard to get going with a six soon after Tea. He picked up two more boundaries off the pacer before the pacer eventually bounced Marsh out to end the entertaining cameo on 21 shortly into the session.

Carey took on the aggressor’s mantle going forward with Khawaja still playing the sheet anchor. The Australia ‘keeper survived a chance on 8 when a Shamar Joseph delivery nipped through the gap and kissed the off-stump but didn’t dislodge the bail. In the very next over from Shamar, Carey cut loose with a hat-trick of beautiful cover drives. Carey didn’t let Sinclair settle in either. He welcomed the offspinner to Test cricket with three evenly spaced out boundaries in his very first over, a cover drive and a reverse-sweep included. The onslaught continued when he nonchalantly lofted the spinner over the long-off fence just before raising a 38-ball fifty.

Shamar returned for damage control and got West indies the much-needed respite with a short ball to Carey, who picked out the man at deep square leg with perfection to depart for a brilliant 49-ball 65. Mitch Starc nicking Alzarri behind at the stroke of the dinner rounded off the session with the hosts still 150 in the deficit.

Cummins would have departed just as soon as he arrived in the middle had Kirk McKenzie nailed a direct hit first ball after the break. The skipper went on to make an invaluable 64* from there on, weathering the storm as West indies deployed the short ball ploy without much success. He did not shy away from pouncing on the loose ones though, and made Windies pay with eight boundaries and a six in his brisk 73-ball effort, taking his side past the 200 comfortably and later 250 while fending with the tail. Australia declared at the fall of Nathan Lyon’s wicket with a 22-run deficit and under an hour left in the day’s play.

The bold call paid off in the closing minutes of play with Josh Hazlewood availing DRS in the final over to scalp Tagenarine Chanderpaul cheaply. The faintest smear on RTS was enough for the umpires to overturn the on-field call as West Indies closed out the day on 13/1, ahead by 35 runs.

Brief scores:
West Indies 311 & 13/1 (Josh Hazlewood 1-2) lead Australia 289/9 decl (Usman Khawaja 75, Alex Carey 65, Pat Cummins 64*; Alzarri Joseph 4-84, Kemar Roach 3-47) by 35 runs