Roseau, Jun 5: Adam Voges made the most of a belated Test debut with a polished, unbeaten 114 in lifting Australia to 280 for nine and a first innings lead of 132 runs over the West Indies at tea on the second day of the first Test in Dominica on Thursday.
Voges, the oldest player ever to score a hundred in his first Test match, got invaluable support from the lower-order to give the visitors a potentially decisive advantage after Devendra Bishoo`s career-best Test figures of six for 75 threatened to rout Australia completely on a pitch offering increasing assistance to the slow bowlers.
Bishoo`s guile and accuracy accounted for Steve Smith, Shane Watson and Brad Haddin in quick succession in the morning session, adding to the dismissal of Australian captain Michael Clarke late on day one.
However a 52-run seventh-wicket stand between Voges and Mitchell Johnson was the start of the tourists` lower-order resistance from the considerable discomfort of 126 for six, which contributed in no small part to their very healthy overall position and allowed the 35-year-old newcomer to reach the treasured landmark of three figures in his very first Test innings.
Bishoo returned to dispose of Johnson and Mitchell Starc in the space of three deliveries in the afternoon session.
Yet any hopes the West Indies entertained of a swift finale disappeared amid the resistance of Nathan Lyon, who contributed 22 in a 43-run ninth-wicket stand before falling leg-before to fast bowler Shannon Gabriel.
Josh Hazlewood, so effective with the ball on the opening day, then held firm for an unbeaten 17 off 41-deliveries that had put on 59 runs by the interval and allowed Voges to get to his richly-deserved century, leaving the West Indies players a dispirited-looking lot as they trudged off the field at the end of a period of play that had started so brightly for them
Yet as well as Voges played, it was Bishoo`s dismissal of Brad Haddin in the morning that will remain a lasting highlight of the day.
Hoisted for a six over long-on by the wicketkeeper-batsman at the start of his innings, the leggie responded in a manner reminiscent of Shane Warne`s celebrated "Ball of the Century" for Australia against Mike Gatting of England in Manchester exactly 22 years to the day.
Looking to play a delivery pitched fractionally outside leg-stump, Haddin was left bemused as the ball spun across him to clip the top off the off-stump, triggering celebrations among the West Indians on the field and in the stands.
By the end of the second session though, the mood was completely reversed as Bishoo struggled with the recurrence of a finger injury and Voges, with the help of the tail, played Australia into a commanding position.
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