Aussie fast bowler Scott Boland said his only change of plan for the West Indies’ second innings was to bowl a little bit fuller.
After going wicketless in the first innings for the first time in his Test career, Boland returned in the second innings with a vengeance – taking three wickets in his first over.
His first pole was Windies skipper Kraigg Braithwaite, who edged through to Alex Carey trying to defend a ball that rose on him.
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Two balls later he bowled a jaffa to Shamarh Brooks that cut back in and clattered into his pads dead in front.
Then Jermaine Blackwood got a leading edge that was brilliantly taken by Cameron Green in the gully.
The brilliant over sent the commentators into raptures.
“That is sensational! What a five minutes of cricket from Australia! Top drawer. That’s as good an over as you’ll ever see in Test cricket,” Kerry O’Keefe said for Fox Sports.
Brendon Julian described it as “an over from heaven”.
After play, Boland said he was “just rolling” after picking up Braithwaite.
“I felt like I bowled pretty well in the first innings but sometimes you bowl well and don’t get wickets. It’s nice to start with a wicket first ball and started rolling from there,” he told ABC Grandstand.
“With the new ball I just wanted to get it a touch fuller, that was the only thing. And then I did want to bowl a couple of bouncers but didn’t do it in the end.”
Graphics shown during the broadcast showed Boland landing the ball “in the shoebox” – an area about the size of a shoebox on a length just outside off stump – over and over again.
The West Indies’ inability to build pressure by doing exactly that had been criticised throughout the series.
Boland said that consistency was something he had only mastered late in his career.
“I’ve been playing first class cricket for 10 years … (only now) I feel like I can do it repeatedly over and over again,” he said.
“Early in my career, I couldn’t do it and now I feel like I’ve got the grasp of that.”
Boland has now taken 21 wickets for 210 runs – an averaged of bang on 10.
The West Indies will resume on Sunday at 4-38, still requiring 459 to win.
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