Australia batsman run riot in second Test against West Indies

Australia beat West Indies by 177 runs on the fourth day of the second Test, to take a 2-0 lead in the three-Test series and thus retain the Frank Worrell Trophy in Melbourne on Tuesday (December 29).

Steve Smith has opted against enforcing the follow-on after Australia rolled West Indies for 271, claiming a first-inning lead of 280 runs at the MCG.

Brathwaite and Bravo dug in to push West Indies to 173-7 at lunch, still 179 runs shy of making Australia bat again at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

Marsh had Ramdin caught behind for 59 and Lyon bowled debutant Carlos Brathwaite for two, his ball just clipping off a bail to leave Australia needing three wickets for victory.

Australia then picked up the final two wickets quickly with spinner Nathan Marsh taking 3-85 to finish with seven wickets for the match to be named player of the match.

Smith produced a relentless performance as he reached his sixth Test century of the year and 13th overall with 134, while Voges remained unbeaten on 106 as Australia declared their first innings on 551 for three, Sport24 reported.

The skipper was also buoyed by the positive debut of paceman Carlos Brathwaite, who scored a 59 in the first innings and showed good control if not pace with his bowling.

The final Test of this series gets under way in Sydney on Sunday.

“I’m proud of the guys to show some fight in this game but I’m still disappointed we didn’t put up a better fight”. Kemar Roach went for 11 and Jerome Taylor was last man out for a duck after skying Marsh to a sprawling James Pattinson at fine leg.

Australian middle order batsman Adam Voges made his debut on test cricket on this year June against West Indies.

By the end of the day, six wickets had fallen, but none belonged to the Australians.

Chasing an imposing 460-run target for victory, the West Indies batsmen battled hard in sublime conditions but were bowled out for 282 in the penultimate over of the day.

“I don’t know what the plan is tomorrow but we’ll be bowling at some stage so we just have to be up for that”.

Pace duo of James Pattinson and Peter Siddle and spin specialist Nathan Lyon grabbed two wickets apiece. At the declaration he had scored 1,404 runs, ahead of Alastair Cook’s 1,357 with England now playing South Africa in Durban.

Marlon Samuels, who took 16 balls to get off the mark, was caught behind for 19 off Marsh.