Barbados, June 26 (UNI) West Indies quick Jayden Seales believes his five-wicket haul against Australia on the opening day of the first Test in Barbados was his best effort yet.
Seales and fellow pacer Shamar Joseph ripped through the highly-rated Australian batting order to dismiss the tourists for just 180, before the Aussies fought back to have the hosts reeling at 57/4 at stumps following an action-packed opening day to the ICC World Test Championship encounter at Kensington Oval.
It was the third time in his short international career that Seales has registered a five-wicket haul and the fiery 23-year-old - who is 10th on the ICC Men's Test Bowler Rankings - said it was his favourite one yet.
"This is probably my best five-wicket haul because it wasn't my best day and I didn't feel at my best any time throughout the day," Seales said.
"There were times I felt good, but throughout spells I didn't feel like I was in full control of what I wanted to do or was executing or nailing my lengths and lines as consistently as I wanted, so this
one is probably my most special one," he said.
It was Joseph that did the early damage for the West Indies as he dismissed Sam Konstas and Cameron Green during a blistering opening spell to help reduce Australia to 22/3 and it took a
89-run partnership from Travis Head and Usman Khawaja to wrest the momentum back from the West Indies quicks.
"I think that's what opened the game right up for us," Seales said of Joseph's early spell.
"Blowing away the top-order is the most important thing in this cricket, and that made it a lot
easier for us in the middle and in the back end of the innings, so he did a fantastic job for us
today."
Head, who top-scored for Australia with 59 and was the only batter on the day to surpass 50,
was full of praise for the West Indies’ bowling attack.
"I thought Jayden bowled exceptionally well," Head said after play.
"Alzarri (Joseph) is always there or thereabouts and Shamar again put the ball in the right areas
and asked questions.
"There were no surprises on what they were able to bring and get things out of the wicket, but vice versa.
"We were able to do the same thing tonight (during the final session) and probably makes for an important couple of hours in the morning."
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