Baracara’s young prodigy Shamar Joseph leads West Indies to sensational victory over Australia in 2nd Test
Shamar Joseph (Source: X)
Baracar’s young fast bowler Shamar Joseph scripts West Indies’ first Test win in Australia in 27 years. Joseph’s stunning 7 for 68 scripted a magnificent eight-run victory in the pink-ball Test match at the Gabba. Ending a 27-year drought for West Indies in Australia. In overcast conditions in Gabba, the rookie pacer turned the game on its head.
With his second five-wicket haul of the series, that brought Australia’s 11-match winning streak in day-night Tests to an end. With a 5-fer on debut, which included a first-ball dismissal of Steve Smith, and his seven wickets in Brisbane after having his toe crushed by Mitchell Starc, Joseph has breathed new life into West Indies cricket.
It is one of Baracara’s sons who led the way to a historic victory in Gabba
Until last week, the world hardly knew about the maroon village of Baracara in Guyana. As the country of Wakanda in the fictitious world of Marvel comics. The North Eastern region of the Caribbean country is only accessible by water and is almost a two-hour boat ride away from the nearest big city – New Amsterdam. The village have a population of hardly four hundred people.
Shamar Joseph carried off the field on Saturday after Mitchell Starc’s toe-crushing yorker, came back on Sunday to rattle the Australian batting and create history with a seven-fer, as West Indies won the Test by eight runs and level the series by 1-1.
“The village that we’re from, the only thing that we know in terms of sport is Dominoes and cricket. We used to play cricket right in front of Shamar’s residence. That was by the waterfront. We used to call it jungle-land cricket,” Orlando Tanner, Joseph’s cousin said.
“At times, we used fruits. Because of the distance and because it’s a remote area, we hardly used to get taped balls. So we used anything that looked like a ball. Sometimes we’d melt the plastic from bottles and turn it into a ball and play cricket with that,” he added.
“As Seventh-Day Adventist christians, we were not allowed to play cricket on Saturday, which was solely for church. That is why Shamar never played youth cricket because his parents would not allow him. The village we’re from, people strongly believe in God,” says his cousin.
Match Summary: West Indies 311 (Joshua Da Silva 79, Kavem Hodge 71, Kevin Sinclair 50; Mitchell Starc 4-82) & 193 (Kirk McKenzie 41; Josh Hazlewood 3-23, Nathan Lyon 3-42) beat Australia 289/9 decl (Usman Khawaja 75, Alex Care 65, Pat Cummins 64*; Alzarri Joseph 4-84, Kemar Roach 3-47) & 207 (Steve Smith 91; Shamar Joseph 7-68) by 8 runs
