A man who wasn’t even supposed to be at the ground ended up delivering one of the all-time-great Test-match spells
Andrew McGlashan28-Jan-20242:13
McGlashan: The game now has a new superstar
“I’m not putting down this ball until the last wicket falls,” Shamar Joseph tells his captain Kraigg Brathwaite on the fourth day at the Gabba.
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On Saturday evening, a yorker crashes into the toe of Shamar, who ends up writhing in agony on the floor. He is forced to retire hurt and is helped off the ground. His Test match looks over. A scan clears him of a fracture, but he’s in such pain during the evening that he can barely sleep, before eventually drifting off at around 4am.Shamar is not expecting to take the field and doesn’t even initially bother heading to the ground on Sunday morning before deciding to go and support his team-mates in their victory push.Related
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The team doctor gives him some pills and Brathwaite tells him he’s going to take the field. But he’s only come to the ground in his training kit and hasn’t even brought his whites. A member of the support staff is hastily dispatched to the hotel. He says at one point he was stood in the dressing wearing his shoes, cap and a pair of boxers. In the meantime, he borrows Zachary McCaskie’s top and has to tape over the name and number to be allowed to field in it. A short while later he quickly changes his top on the boundary. Now, in every way, Shamar Joseph is ready to go.
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A year ago Shamar hadn’t played any first-class cricket. His rapid rise to the national side, from his origins in the small village of Baracara in Guyana, which is 225km by boat from the nearest town and only got internet in 2018, had already been one of the stories of the summer.His Test captain, Brathwaite, hadn’t even met him before this tour. “From speaking to him, I knew he was special,” he says.
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Ten overs into the fourth day at the Gabba, Steven Smith and Cameron Green have taken Australia to 93 for 2 and the target of 216 starts to loom into view. A patched-up and painkiller-laden Shamar comes on from the Vulture Street End. Green slashes at his fourth ball and it flies just over the slips, and then a pristine drive rockets to the fence to bring up Australia’s 100 in ominous fashion.Few could have foreseen what would unfold when this happened to Shamar on Saturday•Getty ImagesIn Shamar’s next over, Green late-cuts him through backward point. It’s 113 for 2 – 103 runs needed for victory. The next delivery climbs at Green who is in a decent position to defend it, but the ball deflects down off his elbow into the stumps.Next comes a pinpoint yorker that gets through Travis Head to inflict just Australia’s third king pair in Test cricket after Ryan Harris and Adam Gilchrist. It means that the last four deliveries Head has faced in Tests at the Gabba have dismissed him.Mitchell Marsh is looking to be aggressive, the manner that has defined his return to the Test side, but a ball after he dispatches Shamar behind point he edges a rising delivery into the slips. The chance is parried by Alick Athanaze but Justin Greaves is there to take the rebound. West Indies have caught very well in this series.Then it’s Alex Carey, who had brought Australia back into the game on the second day, as he’s bowled by a full delivery. Each time, whatever pain Shamar is feeling from his toe, which is still bleeding as it pounds through the crease, disappears as he sprints off into the Gabba outfield.Mitchell Starc lives dangerous and quickly whittles the runs required down to under fifty alongside Smith, but his luck runs out when he carves high into the off side to give Shamar his fifth wicket.Alex Carey has his off stump knocked back by Shamar Joseph•Cricket Australia/Getty ImagesPat Cummins helped Australia to a thrilling victory at Edgbaston last year and just a couple of days ago made his career-best score to save his side from a huge deficit. He’s asked to play his part in another rescue act. Despite his injury, Shamar is able to generate significant pace and it doesn’t drop throughout his spell. His quickest ball is against Smith – 149.6kph – and the next delivery he has Cummins edging behind.The umpires offer Brathwaite an extension to the session, which he accepts, meaning Smith has to make an abrupt about-turn when almost off the ground. He and Nathan Lyon survive four overs through to the dinner break, with Australia needing 29.
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Shamar leads the team off with figures of 10-0-60-6 as though it’s some wild one-dayer. He’s clearly limping. He politely declines a request for a snap TV interview as he leaves the field. In his place Kavem Hodge does the duties. When asked what is keeping Shamar going, he says “special juice”, and hopes there’s some more left.
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Alzarri Joseph bowls the first over of the middle session. Lyon glances a boundary and is then given a life from a tough return catch. Shamar is living every moment down on the deep third boundary. Then Lyon bottom-edges a pull. West Indies need one wicket. Shamar takes the ball.Smith hammers a pull through midwicket then fends a vicious rising delivery off the glove which causes him pain. By now he is farming the strike, allowing Josh Hazlewood two balls at most in an over.’I can’t remember anything [after the winning wicket], just that I ran all the way to the boundary’•Getty ImagesHe brings out an extraordinary scoop for six off Alzarri, then leaves Hazlewood two balls (which becomes three due to a no-ball). Twelve runs are needed. Will Smith do it in sixes? He takes three runs off the first four balls of Shamar’s next over. Two left for Hazlewood.Shamar only needs one. From around the wicket, Hazlewood’s off stump is flattened. In the blink of an eye Shamar has almost reached the boundary in celebration and his team-mates have just about caught up with him. Smith and Hazlewood are briefly motionless.”Two deliveries to Hazlewood, I knew either would have got him,” Shamar says a short while later. “I can’t remember anything [after that ball], just that I ran all the way to the boundary. Just know that I’m really happy and proud.”
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Brian Lara is almost crying. There are clear tears from Carl Hooper in a video posted by ABC Radio. The emotion is obvious from Ian Bishop as well.”A real dream come true for ‘Joseph the Deliverer’, for the West Indies,” Bishop says on Channel 7. “There will be felicitations from Kingston to Georgetown to Guyana. This is just the beginning of a storied career but it’s hard to find any in the history of the game, perhaps, to top this.””Twenty-seven years to beat Australia,” Lara says on Fox Cricket. “Young, inexperienced, written off – this West Indies team can stand tall today. West Indies cricket can stand tall. Today is a big day in West Indies cricket. Congratulations to every member of that cricket team. What a wonderful occasion.”A few minutes later, as the players start to gather for the presentation, Shamar is arm-in-arm with Cummins. “He’s had a hell of a start,” Cummins says. “He bowled the house down.”
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Brathwaite and Shamar sit together at the press conference. Stood towards the back is Lara, beaming with pride and filming it on his phone. “It was amazing to do it in front of Ian Bishop, Carl Hooper and Brian Lara,” Shamar says. “It’s amazing. I can’t explain it. Having people who believe in you, that gives me a lot of confidence.”Questions turn to Joseph’s future and the lure of T20 cricket. He already has a deal in the ILT20. The phone will now be ringing hot.Shamar Joseph takes a bow after being names the Player of the Match•Getty Images”I will always be here to play Test cricket for the West Indies,” Shamar says. “I am not afraid to say this live. There will be times when T20 might come around and Test cricket will be there … but I will always be available to play for the West Indies no matter how much money comes towards me.”Lara applauds him.It is mentioned to Brathwaite that he is not one to show much emotion, although he had been pointed in his criticism of comments made by former Australia quick Rodney Hogg. “When you have a guy disrespecting West Indies, and us players that are playing, it is hurtful,” he says.”It means everything to do it in front of the legends like Brian Lara and to win in Australia, a place we haven’t won in [in] a number of years. And to do it with this young group with seven uncapped players is nothing but amazingly special.”Everyone loves the West Indies and for us to come and do it against the number one team in the world here in Australia…it is great. We have won one Test match and this is a new beginning for us but we still have work to do. Once this group has the belief and plays with heart we can do anything.”Lara waits for the press conference to finish, then walks with Brathwaite and Shamar back to West Indies’ dressing room with two bottles of champagne in hand. It’s been a 27-year wait, drink it in.