Australia verses the West Indies - First Test - Day 1

Honours to Australia.

How Test Cricket has changed in the last 10 years or so. Once upon a time, if you won the toss and put a side in, in a Test Match, you would consider you'd done well, if you'd picked up 7 wickets. In 1990, with 7 wickets down, the batting side would most likely have been 250, (or less!). So with Australia, led brilliantly by a Ricky Ponting who is now finding his feet as captain, smashed 340 in a day. The same thing happened in the second Ashes Test, where some over optimistic Aussies tried to convince us that England had not been successful on day one, because they were all out. They made 400 and setup a win in the Test (although tried to throw it away with 182 in the second innings).

The fact that Australia have managed to cover up a middle order collapse would not normally be such a worry (of course you going to get one or two failures in most innings - that's why centuries and a few partnerships are so important) but in this case it was the usual suspects - Mssrs Hayden, Clarke and Kattich. Luckily for Michael Hussey, their failure could open the gate for him - to be retained next test - with Langer coming back.

Congratulations to the WIndies for winning the toss and sending Australia in. When Nasser Hussein did this all those years ago, it was negative - they didn't want to bat. This move by Chanderpaul was agressive. They were trying to play to their strengths. It looked like it was going to work and if they'd held more catches it may have come off better than it did. Hopefully they bat well enough now, that their performance in this test is competitive and they don't lose any enthusiasm for upcoming matches.

I am talking like they have lost. Not so of course. If they can wrap up the Australian innings for less than 360 / 370, and two of their top order can fire (Lara is due, Samuels is in form) they are in with a good chance. Day two will be a big test now.