Shamar Joseph enjoyed a stunning international debut on Day 1 of Australia's opening Test match against West Indies in Adelaide on Wednesday. The youngster took two valuable wickets to keep West Indies alive in the game at the end of the day's play at Adelaide Oval.
West Indies first innings collapsed on just 188 runs after impressive four-wicket hauls from Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood. Shamar scored the second-highest 36 off 41 balls and added 55 runs with Kemar Roach for the 10th wicket to drag his team from 133/9 to a challenging total of 188.
After leaving impressions with a bat, Shamar stunned the Adelaide crowd with Steve Smith's wicket on his first international ball. Shamar ended Smith's new stint as a Test opener to give Australia a breakthrough in the ninth over and then concluded a day's play with a huge wicket of Marnus Labuschagne.
It was a dream debut for any young bowlers to clinch wickets for Smith and Labuschagne in the same innings and more joyful for Shamar to claim a first-ball wicket. After Day 1's play, Shamar admitted that getting Smith's wicket on the first ball will remain in his memory for a long time and he will post a picture of the wicket in his house.
"Getting Steve Smith, I'll remember this for the rest of my life," Shamar Joseph said after Day 1's play. "I'll actually take a picture, and post it up in my house. I didn't know it was Steve Smith and that went well for me. I went with a positive mindset. You're coming up against the best team in Test cricket. So I just come with a positive mindset and do what I do best."
Shamar, with experience of just five first-class matches, became the only second West Indies cricketer after Tyrell Johnson (in 1939) to take a wicket on the first ball in his international career.
