A grim final day at Sabina Park finished with West Indies 27 all out, their second-lowest Test total and the eighth-quickest innings in the format’s long history. Australia needed just 14.3 overs to defend 203 and complete a 3-0 series victory, leaving Roston Chase searching for answers after a month of persistent batting frailties.
“It’s disappointing,” Chase said. “We’ve been putting ourselves in positions to win games, and then we just lay down and not put up a fight in the last batting innings. It’s quite heartbreaking, because I think we did it in all three Tests, and we’re not really learning from our mistakes. So that’s something we have to really look at.”
Seven West Indies batters departed without scoring, the first time that has happened in 149 years of men’s Test cricket. The top six contributed six runs between them. Only tail-enders Kemar Roach and Gudakesh Motie reached double figures, which says plenty about the depth of the problem.
Mitchell Starc iced the occasion with the fastest five-wicket haul on record, grabbing 5 for 6 in 15 balls. The left-armer slanted his first delivery across Tagenarine Chanderpaul, nicked him off, then uprooted Alick Athanaze’s off stump three balls later. By the time he flattened Chase’s middle peg, Starc had 4 for 0 and West Indies were 5 for 4. “You can bowl spells that feel good, but that one surprised even me,” Starc said on television afterwards, still looking slightly bemused.
Chase resisted any suggestion that the surface let his side down. “I thought it was realistic,” he said of the 204-run target. “I mean, the wicket was a good wicket, still a good batting wicket. I didn’t think there was too many devils in the wicket, like the last two games where the ball was rolling or bouncing inconsistently. So yeah, we thought 204 was quite gettable. But then, obviously, with the start and stuff being [11 for 6] or something like that, it’s very difficult to really get those runs from there.”
The captain did, however, acknowledge three slow, uneven pitches across the series. “I think the pitches were very tough. I don’t want to say they were too in favour of the bowlers, but they were very tough because, as you can see, this is probably the first series I’ve ever played [where] no batter got a hundred for each side.”
Hard numbers back him up. Across six completed innings West Indies managed 190, 141, 253, 143, 143 and 27. Brandon King’s brisk 75 in Grenada remained the tourists’ only half-century; he also topped their averages with 21.50, which illustrates the wider struggle. Australia, for their part, avoided anything catastrophic but still found run-making hard work: only Travis Head (235 at 47.00) passed 200 for the series.
Former West Indies opener Chris Gayle, commentating for local radio, summed up the collective mood: “No West Indies fan wants to see 27 all out. We understand rebuilding, but you still expect fight.” Another ex-international, Ian Bishop, highlighted technique over temperament. “Too many guys playing around the ball, especially against Starc’s angle. It’s basic, not mysterious.”
Where next? The team flies to Florida next week for a short white-ball camp before September’s Champions Trophy qualifier. Several players—including King and Athanaze—have county contracts pencilled in, and selectors are expected to hold a debrief in Barbados. Whether that leads to changes on the next Test tour, in Pakistan later this year, is unclear.
Chase knows the questions will keep coming. “Obviously being bowled out for less than 30 is quite embarrassing,” he said. “But this group is not short on ability. The gap, for me, is decision-making under pressure. Sorting that out is the challenge before we play again.”
For now, the scorecard speaks loudest: 27 all out, seven ducks, series lost 3-0. It is the sort of statistic that can linger, yet cricket rarely allows time to wallow. West Indies must move on quickly—preferably with lessons finally absorbed.
