Baugh's costly fumble

Michael Hussey and James Pattinson were still getting their partnership established when Hussey advanced to Shane Shillingford and was beaten in flight and turn. A wicket at this juncture would have exposed a longer than usual Australian tail to Shillingford's spin and a still newish ball, leaving the hosts with a chance of restricting the visitors to less than 250. However Carlton Baugh's gloves had let him down frequently across the innings, and he had already dropped Hussey off Shillingford late on day one. So there was disappointment but no great surprise among the slim Monday crowd of locals when Baugh fumbled his take for long enough to allow Hussey to lunge back into his crease.

After a rain delay Hussey and Pattinson were finally dislodged, in quick succession too. Ben Hilfenhaus, Nathan Lyon and Michael Beer did not unduly trouble the scorers or the West Indies, but Hilfenhaus did at least show an excellent piece of judgement of where his stumps were. Shillingford struck him on the front pad with an off break as Hilfenhaus propped forward, and the umpire Ian Gould raised his finger in response to the West Indian appeal. However Hilfenhaus took Australia's final referral, which demonstrated how unlikely it can be for an offspinner to win an lbw decision from over the wicket on a turning pitch - provided the batsman gets well forward. Hilfenhaus was struck in line, but the length of his stride left plenty of distance for the ball to travel, and Hawk-Eye's projection showed it to be sliding past leg stump.

A crowd that had grown somewhat sleepy during afternoon rain then the patient stand between Hussey and Pattinson was perked up slightly by the rush of wickets to end Australia's innings. But they were brought to the fronts of their seats by Michael Clarke's decision to hand the new ball to the slow left-arm spin of Michael Beer for the first over of the West Indies' turn to bat. Beer had done the trick before in Twenty20 matches for the Perth Scorchers, but it was still a considerably leftfield choice by Clarke given that Pattinson and Hilfenhaus were bound to gain some early swing. Nonetheless, Beer quickly dropped onto a length, and spun the ball past Adrian Barath's bat with the last ball of each of his first two overs.

Having lost the first of their two referrals when Kraigg Brathwaite's appeal to technology could not save him from a marginal lbw in favour of Hilfenhaus, West Indies were more cautious about using their second and last. In the case of Kieran Powell he proved too reticent, as Pattinson's delivery straightened down the line to pin him in front of the stumps, but replays showed the ball had pitched outside leg stump - an automatic reprieve had Powell made the T sign.