This was published 2 years ago
Kraigg Brathwaite bringing a bit of fire on stage now. Asked about the belief in his side, the skipper doesn’t miss.
“We had two words that inspired us in this Test match,” Brathwaite says.
“Mr Rodney Hogg said we were ‘pathetic’ and ‘hopeless’ so that was our inspiration. We wanted to show the world we are not pathetic. I want to ask him, ‘are these muscles big enough for him?‘“
The venom when Brathwaite said ‘pathethic’ then. And follows up with a flex. How good.
That’s all from the Maroubra bureau today.
What a finish. What a Test match. Shamar Joseph, what a man. Rodney Hogg, what a sledge. Kraigg Brathwaite, what a flex.
I don’t know about you, but that’s one of the greatest things I’ve seen in cricket and it was made all the better by it being the West Indies.
Played their entire tour in fantastic spirit, punched well above their weight and emerged with a famous, much-deserved victory that you’d hope will have an impact on the game in the Caribbean for some time. The tears of Brian Lara and Carl Hooper at the Gabba said it all.
We’ll be back soon enough with some white-ball fair before Australia’s tour of New Zealand, while it looks like India is going to put England to bed in Hyderabad - they’re 3-94 needing another 137 runs to win in the first Test.
All is right with the world.
The Gabba is no longer Australia’s cricketing fortress. Three years after losing to India, the Aussies have lost to the West Indies at the same venue. Here are the Australian player ratings for the Gabba Test.
After looking all at sea in the first innings, Smith found his rhythm in the second (91n.o) to contribute the backbone of a nervy chase and demonstrate that he can make the opening position work for him and Australia. Will always ponder whether he should have handed Hazlewood the strike with two balls left of Joseph’s final over.
The only way to get to Baracara is by very small boat. From Guyana’s port town of New Amsterdam, the trip up the Canje River is about 225km but can apparently take up to two days, so thick and tangled is the grass that grows along the banks of the narrow waterway.
Sometimes the vegetation stretches all the way to the opposite bank, stopping whatever boat is transporting produce or lumber dead in its tracks until it can be cut by locals in surrounding communities.
Baracara is, for all intents and purposes, in the middle of nowhere. And it is from the middle of nowhere where West Indies’ revelatory new quick hails.
Part of the reason Shamar Joseph’s story is so striking is that the prospect of a young man from a tiny community, isolated from anything resembling competitive cricket by its lack of telephone and internet access - and all that overgrown grass - making an international Test debut in Adelaide seems even less likely than West Indies threatening to upset Australia.
Read the full story here.
Kraigg Brathwaite bringing a bit of fire on stage now. Asked about the belief in his side, the skipper doesn’t miss.
“We had two words that inspired us in this Test match,” Brathwaite says.
“Mr Rodney Hogg said we were ‘pathetic’ and ‘hopeless’ so that was our inspiration. We wanted to show the world we are not pathetic. I want to ask him, ‘are these muscles big enough for him?‘“
The venom when Brathwaite said ‘pathethic’ then. And follows up with a flex. How good.
Who else could it be? Shamar Joseph is awarded the Richie Benaud Medal for 13 wickets at 17, plus a fifty on debut to go with today’s heroics.
Gotta love this bloke, hasn’t stopped bowing since he reached the boundary and Isa Guha has to call him back for an interview. Again he thanks his teammates first and foremost.
“Where’s Dr Bayum? He called me this morning, I was in my bed at 11, the bus was leaving at 12.15,” he says.
“He said, ‘Come to ground, it’s for a good reason, to win the Test match for your team’.”
Shamar Joseph pauses, asks Brendon Julian to wait while he mops himself up before conducting the first of many post-match interviews.
“I wasn’t even coming to the ground this morning,” he says of the toe Mitchell Starc busted last night. Thanks his teammates, physios and team doctor for getting him on the paddock.
“Today’s a big day for us. I can’t remember the last time we won in Australia … I cried for my five-wicket haul, but I’m so happy now. I’m not even tired. I would have kept bowling. I told my teammates I would keep going until we won. My toe … I’m OK.”
Steve Smith takes the lion’s share of strike against Shamar Joseph. Field spread to all parts. He pinches two at the start of the over – well-played and very well-run backward of point. Again Hazlewood has two balls to face. Four slips. Short leg.
Shamar Joseph from around the wicket. Bowled him! Gone! The West Indies win. Their first win on Australian soil since 1997. What a finish. What a Test.
Joseph with his seventh wicket, smashing the off stump out of the ground. Steve Smith stranded on 91, carrying his bat and almost pulling off one of the greatest escapes you’d hope to see. Joseph leads the Windies on a 100-metre sprint to the boundary. What busted toe?