A good call and a brave promotion

When Kemar Roach sent Ben Hilfenhaus' off stump cartwheeling - the second time he had plucked that very same stump in the match, having also removed it when belonging to Shane Watson - he became the first West Indies fast bowler to take 10 wickets in a Test since Corey Collymore against Pakistan at Sabina Park in 2005. Against Australia the drought had stretched as far back as the one-run Adelaide Oval Test of 1993, when Curtly Ambrose rounded up 10 to help the visitors to the narrowest win in the history of the five-day game. No wonder Roach celebrated wildly when the wicket fell, and also led his team-mates off at the end of the innings.

From the moment Michael Hussey cracked Narsingh Deonarine's first ball after lunch for six over wide long off, it was clear that Michael Clarke's Australia would try to make something of the match, even though the rain threatened. Having taken the lead to 214 for the loss of eight wickets, Clarke called his men in, as he had done in the first innings at Kensington Oval. Given the scoring rate across the match and the strong likelihood of rain, Clarke's call was as shrewd as it was bold, but his desire to keep the game moving at all costs remained clear.

Having been set a challenge by Clarke, Darren Sammy responded grandly in the 11 overs that were possible before the long threatened rain blanketed the ground. First, he promoted Kieran Powell to open with Adrian Barath instead of the more conservative Kraigg Brathwaite. Powell stroked his first ball through the covers for four, and after his dismissal the next man in was no-one other than Sammy himself, seeking to drag the West Indies into the contest with rapid runs. He had perished by this method in the first innings, but in the second he brought the match to life with a series of brave blows, reaching 30 from 26 balls before light and rain intervened. On a pitch that has been the epitome of slow and low, his innings was the only of the match to return a strike rate of better than 100.