Australia 208-5 (Shane Watson 56, Michael Clarke 45, Michael Hussey 26*, Shane Shillingford 2-56)

Australia started the second Test against West Indies in a positive way keeping in view the state of wicket which is not suitable for the stroke play.

The Kangaroos have won the first Test against the hosts by three wickets at Kensington Oval, Bridgetown, Barbados on April11, 2012 and are leading the three match series 1-0.

The second Test commenced on April 15, 2012 at Queen’s park oval, Port of Spain, Trinidad, and the wicket was supposed to assist the spinners.

The Windies have included the right arm off spinner, Shane Shillingford and all rounder, off spinner, Narsingh Deonarine who grabbed 4-53 in the second innings of the Aussies in the first Test.

Australia has also included left arm spinner, Michael Beer and the right arm off spinner, Nathan Lyon in their line up which reflects the approach by both teams towards the spinning track at Port of Spain.

Earlier, the Australian captain, Michael Clarke won the toss and opted to bat first and their innings was initiated by the regular openers, David Warner and Ed Cowan as the new ball from the West Indies was shared by Fidel Edwards and Kemar Roach. Warner opened his account with a four on the second ball of the first over as the batsman was given out on the last ball as caught behind by the field umpire, Erasmus, but Darren Sammy thought the ball was taken at a half volley. The ball did not touch the bat and even after referral to the third umpire, that could have been a clear leg before wicket, any way the drama was over and Warner got a life.

Cowan also started his innings with a four on the first ball of the second over as Warner opened up with a couple of fours in the fifth over off Fidel Edwards. The scoring was carried on at a reasonable rate as the first fifty of the innings was posted on board in the 14^th over and the hosts got the first breakthrough in the 16^th over. Warner was caught in the slip by Sammy off Shane Shillingford for 29 runs after contributing 53 for the first wicket. Shane Watson came in next, joined with Cowan and both of them were unable to score even a single run in the next three overs which ended as maiden. They added 12 runs in the total when Cowan was declared leg before wicket off Roach for 28 and the poor form of Ricky Ponting in the ongoing series continued as he was gone after scoring just seven runs off 26 balls without scoring a boundary.

The third wicket fell at 83 when the man in form, Michael Clarke came in the centre and joined with Watson who dispatched a couple of fours in the 37^th over to achieve the first hundred of the innings. The wicket was slow and the batsmen found it hard to score the runs freely and the duo kept on crawling with the odd boundaries as Watson completed his fifty on the fifth ball of the 59^th over. The fourth wicket associated valuable 84 runs as Clarke was caught by Shillingford at deep square leg off Narsingh Deonarine for 45 runs.

Michael Hussey came at the crease and got a life when he was dropped by the wicket keeper, Carlton Baugh off Shane Shillingford at five runs. Watson became the next victim after scoring 56 as Matthew Wade took guards and saw the first day off with Hussey. The Kangaroos scored 208 runs for the loss of five wickets by the end of the 90^th over at stumps on the day one whereas Michael Hussey and Wade were unbeaten on 26 and 11 runs respectively.

Kemar Roach and Shane Shillingford were the main wicket takers with two wickets each as Narsingh Deonarine claimed one.

Australia has started off well on the first day of the second Test and another 100 runs can put them in a solid position whereas, West Indies will be anticipating folding their innings in the first hour of the second day.