Australia 212-7 (David Warner 50, Shane Watson 41, Shane Shillingford 4-77)

The lanky off spinner of West Indies, Shane Shillingford shrunk Australia on the first day of the third Test by grabbing four wickets and put the home side on top.

Australia struggled almost throughout the day as the wickets kept on crumbling and they managed 212 runs in 90 overs for the loss of seven wickets at the end of the first day’s play.

The third and last Test of the series commenced from April 23, 2012 at Windsor Park, Roseau, Dominica.

Earlier, Australian captain, Michael Clarke, won the toss and opted to bat with a vision to put a hefty score on board. They suffered an early blow when the opener, Ed Cowan was declared leg before wicket off Ravi Rampaul on the second ball of the second over for just one run. Shane Watson appeared on the scene,  joined with David Warner and both found it hard to score the runs against the calculated bowling attack by Rampaul and Kemar Roach. The Kngaroos managed just 10 runs from the first seven overs and Warner got a life on the last ball of the eighth over when he was dropped by the skipper Darren Sammy in the third slip off Rampaul for mere 4 runs.

The duo kept on creeping and the first fifty of the innings was posted on board in on the last ball of the 20^th over. Shane Shillingford was introduced in the attack from the 21^st over and he was straight away on the target and the batsmen found it hard to negotiate with his rising deliveries. The lunch was taken after 28 overs and the visitors had reached at 69 runs without any further loss.

Sammy got the second breakthrough when Shane Watson was gone for 41 runs as the score reached 84 runs. The most senior batsman of Australia, Ricky Ponting came to the crease and steadied the innings with Warner who achieved his fifty in the 45^th over. Shillingford struck in the very next over as David Warner was Caught by Kieran Powell at cover point for 50 off 136 balls with 6 fours.

The third wicket fell at 105 runs when Michael Clarke walked in the centre, joined with Ponting and they took the score to 133 without losing any further wicket when tea break was taken after 56 overs. Ricky Ponting became the next victim of Shillingford when he was gone for 23 runs after adding 37 hard fought runs for the fourth wicket with Clarke.

Shane Shillingford continued his lethal bowling spell, got the important wickets of Clarke and Michael Hussey in quick succession and Australia was reeling at 164-6 and five runs later Kemar Roach got rid of Ryan Harris. Matthew Wade and Mitchell Starc got together at the crease, consolidated the innings with great determination and enhanced the score to 212 in 90 overs. Wade was unbeaten for 22 off 72 balls with 3 fours as Starc was holding his end with 24 scored from 40 deliveries with one six.

Shane Shillingford broke the back of the Australian batting by grabbing four wickets whereas Kemar Roach, Ravi Rampaul and Darren Sammy claimed one wicket each.

West Indies are in commanding position at the moment and would like to rip through the tail quickly whereas Australia will be anticipating some miraculous batting from their tail enders.