Hazlewood completes Australia's 250-wicket quartet in trademark style

There was an audible gasp around the Adelaide Oval moments after the toss, when Pat Cummins uttered what could be considered a sacrilegious statement in the city of churches: "We're going to have a bowl."

Only nine times in 82 Tests at this famous ground had captains uttered those words, and it was just the second time any captain had made that choice since 1992. Only one of those nine teams had gone on to win - West Indies in 1982, with an attack comprising Michael Holding, Andy Roberts, Joel Garner and Colin Croft.

But only one team in history has had an attack featuring a four bowlers with more than 250 Test wickets each. That team is this Australian team, and the final member of the quartet to reach that milestone was Josh Hazlewood when he rattled the top of Alick Athanaze's off stump.

It is brutal that this West Indies team was subjected to the first-ever Test quartet with 200 wickets each in Perth in December 2022, only to return to Australia 13 months later to face the same quartet with 214 more wickets among them. That they had to do so with two debutants in their top six, while three of the top four had only 11 Tests between them, is just plain cruel.

West Indies captain Kraigg Brathwaite had urged his team to fight and be disciplined on match eve. His batters, for the most part, did both of those things. But when the gulf in class is so vast, it doesn't matter how big the fight is in the dog, the biggest dogs are hard to beat.

"A lot of people that play Shield games here with the red ball think it gets flatter as the game goes on," Hazlewood said of the decision to bowl first. "So the best time to probably take 10 wickets is straight up if we get it right. I was happy to bowl today."

On this occasion, it was the big dog with the lowest profile who had the biggest bite. Hazlewood doesn't have a multi-million dollar IPL deal, nor is his nickname an acronym of the Greatest of All Time. But he is a big dog in every sense, attacking batters in an unrelenting and consistent manner until they succumb.

Cummins had provided the early breakthroughs, removing West Indies' two most experienced batters. Tagenarine Chanderpaul fell to a stunning catch at gully by Cameron Green, his weapons-grade wingspan helping him pluck a chance no other man on the field could have reached. Cummins then knocked back Brathwaite's off stump with a nearly identical ball to the one that brought his 200th Test wicket in Perth last summer.

Athanaze and Kirk McKenzie then belied their inexperience to blunt Australia's quartet. The pair showed the fight their captain had desired for a brief period at least. They made sound choices outside their off stump. Their defence looked rock solid. There have been many world-renowned Test batters, including Babar Azam just recently, who have looked far less assured against Australia's artillery in Australia.

Hazlewood, though, did what Hazlewood does. He asks batters to make difficult decisions around their off stump again and again and again until they break. Athanaze defended two in a row from around the wicket but was unsure whether he should have played at the second in hindsight. The third he opted to leave; it nipped back to hit off stump.

Then after lunch, with McKenzie and debutant Kavem Hodge fighting hard, Hazlewood returned having not bowled for eight overs since the break and found his metronomic line and length again. Hodge was itching for something to drive; Hazlewood obliged with something that looked like a drive ball but wasn't. The edge again disappeared into Green's giant hands.

In Hazlewood's next over, he went around the wicket to McKenzie, who had just reached an excellent maiden Test half-century. Just as he had with Athanaze, Hazlewood examined the left-hander's decision-making around his off stump. Having nipped one back to Athanaze, he nipped one away from McKenzie to scratch the edge. In Hazlewood's fourth over of his spell, Justin Greaves meekly chipped one to mid-off while trying to drive a ball that wasn't quite there. He had bowled 17 dots in a row and taken three wickets as West Indies slumped from a respectable 98 for 3 to 108 for 6.

Cummins returned to pick up two more while Mitchell Starc also chimed in, having bowled without much luck in his opening spell.

As good as Australia's attack are, finishing off the tail is becoming a bugbear. For the second straight Test, they conceded a half-century stand for the tenth wicket. Debutant Shamar Joseph and Kemar Roach rebuffed the bouncer barrage, clubbing five fours and two sixes to lift the score from 133 for 9 to 188. Joseph made 36 off 41 from No.11 - the second-highest score of the innings.

This followed Aamer Jamal and Mir Hamza's 86-run stand for Pakistan in Sydney. Australia are the only team to have conceded more than one half-century stand for the final wicket in the last 12 months, having conceded three, including one at Old Trafford during the Ashes. Cummins, Starc and Hazlewood played all three Tests, and Nathan Lyon was there for two of them.

"Often the best ball to a top-six batter is probably the easiest ball to slog sometimes," Hazlewood said. "So it's just maybe mixing it up a bit more. Obviously, the bouncer plays a part. So it's just sequencing those balls. Working them out. When it's a debutant as well it's probably even more difficult. You don't know his strengths and weaknesses that well. But we'll have a look and come back with something else."

It did not cost them much at either Old Trafford or Sydney, and they will hope it doesn't cost them here in Adelaide.