Poor Umpiring Causing The Windies Downfall

-Timothy Thompson

Despite concerns related to the form of the West Indies team, the now Roston Chase led squad went straight into their first encounter against Australia. The hurt Australian team won the toss and decided to have the first bat at the island's Mecca. The opening bowlers, Jayden Seales and Shamar Joseph, had brilliant and aggressive starts, leaving the Australian batters unsettled and in awe. The brilliant bowling was rewarded with three wickets before lunch, but not before a couple of key drops from Chase and Brandon King in the slips region.

After lunch on day one, the West Indies continued to dig further into the Aussie batting order. Travis Head was proving to be the only Aussie in good form with a team best of 56. Joseph, though fortunate, found himself constantly unfortunate, with many chances off his bowling being dropped. Following this, he was then denied twice while looking for his fourth five wicket haul in Test cricket. Seales, though, was the bowler with the deserved privilege of getting five wickets, signalling off most of the Australian batsmen to mark his confidence and dominance.

On the flip side, the West Indies, looking to start their batting innings on a high, were stunted by none other than Mitchell Starc. Starc removed the openers Campbell and Brathwaite to expose the West Indian middle order. Carty was expected to carry on his terrific form into the longer format. Unfortunately, it was not the innings he anticipated. The West Indies batters failed to impress against the quality Aussie bowlers but just did enough to surpass the first innings score by Australia after lunch on day two.

With blood in their eyes, the Windies bowlers came out flying, but once again the fielding efforts let down Windies speedster Shamar Joseph. This occurred as two catches went down in the early stages of the game. Seales, though, caused havoc once again alongside Shamar Joseph and Justin Greaves to put the home side in an excellent position. With 20 overs left in the game, four Aussie batters went under, leaving Head and Webster to try to repair the plagued innings. The pair did just that, with both batters making it past the 50 run mark to put the visiting Australian team in a great position. Alex Carey was the next batter in to deepen the blow, as he also struck a half century to propel Australia to 310 all out.

With 301 runs on the board and almost two days to accomplish this feat, the home side were in a very promising position to surpass this total. Fans felt comfortable knowing the game would be secure with the towering batting order, which comprises talents Hope, Carty and King. This was far from the truth, as that calm and comfort quickly turned into pain and anguish. The Australian bowling attack was brutal, with the best seamers in world cricket charging in stump to stump and swinging the ball both ways. Hazlewood, Cummins and Starc did the damage to crush the Windies’ hopes, as they failed to make it past day three, subsequently also failing to win the first game of the World Test Championship cycle.

The game, although won by Australia outright, was plagued with a lot of controversy. The controversy occurred thanks to the horrendous umpiring by the third umpire, Adrian Holdstock. The major part of the criticism was not just because of the bad umpiring, it was the inconsistent decision making that strictly assisted only Australia’s cause. To make matters worse, he was the third umpire who was supported by the technology but still opted to make the wrong decisions time and time again. Of the many horrible decisions, two faced major backlash. It came from Head Coach Darren Sammy and other top ranking persons around the cricket fraternity.

The West Indies, despite falling in this first Test match, can take away many positives from this first encounter to then be better prepared for the Aussies in the second and third Test matches in Jamaica and Grenada. For the Aussies, it would mean getting their batting formula corrected to continue being one of the most feared all round Test teams in the world.

There are many unanswered questions going into the next encounter, but one thing is for certain: if the umpiring standard improves, cricket fans can expect an exhilarating performance from both sides as they butt heads for two more games in the Caribbean.