Scrutiny of Sam Konstas ramps up as West Indies keep second Test alive

As so often in Test cricket, drama saved itself for the dying overs of the day. With 90 remaining minutes ticking down towards 60 on the second day of the second Test in Grenada, tactically minded onlookers started to think about West Indies’ last-wicket partnership. Anderson Phillip and Jayden Seales were defending with heart, on their way to facing 65 balls and adding 16 runs. With Australia having made 286 the previous day, their stand took West Indies from 49 runs behind to 33. But each over that they chose to keep batting rather than swing for runs, they reduced the time available to bowl at an Australian top order under pressure.

In the end, there were 30 minutes left when Australia began the third innings. And in the end, that was enough to account for both openers, raising the tension another notch with only two more opportunities for them to bat in a Test before the Ashes. So much attention has been on young Sam Konstas, after struggles in Barbados and a briefly improved showing in the first innings here. He has only once before faced the pressure of a brief late Tests innings, in Sydney when he foolishly provoked Jasprit Bumrah and brought about Usman Khawaja’s wicket next ball.

This time, with nerves doubtless spiking, Konstas blocked once, left twice, then saw the fourth ball of the innings miles wide of his off stump. Hurling his bat without poise, he chopped it on. His trudge back to the dressing room for nought was as disconsolate as they come, body language radiating unhappiness, and as soon as he turned around, coach Andrew McDonald left the upstairs balcony to go inside and prepare to meet him. Two overs later, Khawaja fell to pace around the wicket again, lbw to inswing for the third time of four this series. Jayden Seales had them both, and Australia’s top order has more question marks than the Riddler’s pants. The team score of four runs became a dozen by stumps, an overall lead of 45.

An opener’s duck to end the day, bookending an opener’s duck to start. Kraigg Braithwaite is the rarest of birds: a West Indies Test specialist. While his first-class record stands at a hefty 228 matches, and earlier in his career he scored a decent amount of runs from 63 games of 50-over cricket, he has still never played a professional T20 match, and isn’t hunting the chance. What he has now done is play 100 Tests. It seems miraculous that a team whose engagements are now so occasional could give Braithwaite that many chances by the age of 32, though it helps when a player debuts at 18.

His trademark has been to prioritise batting time, with runs a secondary priority, and his record is accordingly modest: an average of 32 is the lowest of any specialist bat out of the 82 members of the Hundred Club. Only two others average under 40. Place Brathwaite next to the previous nine West Indies entrants and those surnames tower over his: Lloyd, Richards, Greenidge, Haynes, Lara, Chanderpaul, Hooper, Gayle, Walsh.

View image in fullscreen Brandon King top-scored for West Indies with 75. Photograph: Ricardo Mazalán/AP

But West Indies Test cricket is a different world now, and needs any help it can get. While six years younger than Khawaja, Braithwaite is in a similar position: an experienced opener picked for stability but whose results are sharply on the wane. His last flourish began against Australia in late 2022, backing up 64 with 110 at the new stadium in Perth, before a big hundred against Zimbabwe. In two and a half years since that innings, he has averaged 19, with three fifties in 18 Tests. The thing about rare birds is they’re always on the brink of going extinct.

It was in that context that Brathwaite played a miscued drive in the second over of the day, skewing an easy catch back to Josh Hazlewood. Tenth West Indies player to 100 Tests, tenth player overall to make a duck in his milestone game. Pat Cummins followed up with a diving, sliding return catch of his own off Keacy Carty for six, and the two quicks chipped away at the middle order. The best returns for West Indies came from a white-ball approach, with John Campbell smacking 40 while Brandon King played some impressive shots in his 75. When Nathan Lyon had King caught off the glove, 169-6 was still skinny, but some late-order hitting fattened it up to 253.

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As in Bridgetown, this is now a single-innings match, and it’s up to Australia to set and defend a target. Braithwaite, though, will get a second innings, and needs runs to justify continuing his career to Test number 101. Konstas will play in Jamaica but will face the same demand there to take his tally past five. Khawaja has to find a way past his problems, or have an honest talk with himself about whether his Ashes aspirations will help his team. And before all of that future consideration, this Test right now remains very much alive.

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