Australia rolls West Indies for second lowest score in history to secure 3-0 series clean sweep
Australian captain Pat Cummins summed up his team’s unbelievable demolition of the West Indies in Jamaica with four words.
“This match was madness,” he said after Mitchell Starc took six wickets and Scott Boland a hat-trick to rout the home side for just 27, the second lowest score in Test history, to secure a 3-0 series clean sweep in the most breathtaking fashion.
Wielding the pink ball like a magician, Starc, in his 100th Test, went past 400 career wickets as he tore through the West Indian top order in a fashion never seen before.
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The home side was 6-25 when Boland was given the ball and he took all of his wickets with the first three balls of his second over, finishing with 2-3 and taking the 10th hat-trick in Australian Test history.
The West Indies avoided equalling the lowest score ever by just a single run before Starc took his sixth wicket to end the run chase 176 runs short of the total needed to take what would have been a shock victory.
Cummins was stunned in the aftermath.
“Today seemed to be playing in fast forward,” he said.
“I think when you talk about 100 Tests you talk about, resilience and skill, fitness and all those things but I think today showed the real Mitchell Starc, what he can bring to a team which is out of nowhere tear and opposition apart and win a game for you.
“He does it consistently in any format and feel very lucky he’s on our team.”
Cummins said the series was a “tough as you get” for batters, with not a single century scored in three Tests.
“This game, a couple of 40s were worth 80 or 90,” he said.
“A couple of guys, you could look and see if they could have found ways to score more runs.”
Starc was named player of the match and player of the series.
“Worked out pretty well for the week,” he said.
“Fantastic series, difficult batting conditions. Very enjoyable few days.”
Beaten West Indies captain Roston Chase said it was “heartbreaking to be in a position like this”.
“It has been recurring for the whole series, makes it all the more disappointing,” he said.
“It is quite easy to assess – the bowlers kept us in all along, batters never really clicked.”
Originally published as Australia rolls West Indies for second lowest score in history to secure 3-0 series clean sweep
