Shamar Jose He took 7/68 in the second innings of the second Test at the Gabba to help the West Indies beat Australia by 8 runs and level the series at 1-1. Australia won the first Test in Adelaide by 10 wickets.
Joseph scored 1/56 in the first innings with Australia scoring 289. With a target of 216 to defend in the second innings, Joseph tormented the Australian batsmen and posted career-best figures in just his second Test match. He took 13 wickets in the series to finish as Man of the Match and the series as the Windies won their first Test in Australia since 1997.
Joseph was hit on the toe of his right foot by a Mitchell Starc yorker on day 3. He dealt with the injury and bowled again on day four, which was absolutely lethal. He castled Josh Hazlewood as he was the last wicket to fall in the second innings and Australia finished on 207 in their second innings.
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Former West Indies pace legend Curtly Ambrose, who picked 405 Test wickets in 98 Test matches, praised Joseph for his performance and compared him to another former Windies pacer, Malcolm Marshall. One of the great pacers of all time, Marshall claimed 376 wickets in 81 Test matches and picked 157 wickets in 136 ODIs.
“He’s a difficult client, more like Malcolm Marshall. So, I hope he stays focused, humble and continues to learn the craft from it and try to learn and get better every day.” Ambrose said, quoted by Daily Star.
“I would like to see Shamar Joseph play a lot of red-ball cricket. He has just started his career, so he needs to learn and understand what it takes to become a world-class fast bowler, and then he can always move on to ODIs or T20 cricket.” he added.
The Windies pace legend further said that his team is not playing Test cricket consistently of late and added that the Gabba victory will boost the confidence of this young and inexperienced team.
“We sent a team where we have seven or eight [seven] young players who never played test cricket. For me, that was important and should do a lot of good for their confidence, and hopefully they can build on this in the future. The only downside for the West Indies is that we don’t play enough Test cricket.” Ambrose said.
The crowd kept us pressing: Shamar Joseph
Joseph’s celebration after he took the last Australian wicket to fall was a must-see. He happily ran around the Gabba outfield because his West Indies teammates couldn’t catch him. It was almost a solo effort by the young pacer that helped his team make history at the Gabba and breach the so-called Australian fortress. Australia needed 156 runs to reach the final day with 8 wickets in hand. They lost the game from that position.
“It’s really incredible for me, you know, I just want to turn here to thank my teammates and management staff for their great words of encouragement. I have a bruised toe to bowl with, but I just go through the phase and the pain, knowing that I need to do this for my team and, you know, for everyone in my country and the Caribbean. He reached out to the crowd to keep pushing us and believe we can take the series to 1-1.” Joseph said in the post-match presentation.
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