West Indies seamer, Shamar Joseph shared his feelings after dismissing star Australia batter, Steve Smith on the first ball of his international career during the first Test of the two-match series on Wednesday.
Joseph became the 23rd player in Test history and the second West Indian to take a wicket on the first ball of an international career.
The youngster remarked that he will remember this wicket for rest of his life and he will actually take a picture, and post it up in his house.
“Getting Steve Smith, I’ll remember this for the rest of my life. I’ll actually take a picture, and post it up in my house,” Shamar Joseph said after the first day’s play as quoted by ESPNCricinfo.
Earlier in the day, the right-arm pacer told his teammates that he will snap a wicket on his first ball of his international career.
“I didn’t know it was Steve Smith. 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,” the bowler asserted.
The ball on which Smith was dismissed was a 137kph good-length ball on a fifth-stump line. The debutant said that he stopped in-between before bowling the first ball as he went nervous and spoke about the weakness of Smith.
“I didn’t miss my run-up; I was just nervous. So I just went and built in my mind to get the first ball right – just on top of off stump. I [had] watched back a few Test matches of Steve Smith, and I think that is an area of weakness for him,” Joseph said of his initial run-up.
“So I just say that I will just hit the top of off because he’s a batter that triggers across a lot; he tries to take you off of your line. So I just stuck to the basic, hit just on top of off, getting a little movement away, and got the edge,” the 24-year-old added.
Talking about the match, Australia stands at 59/2 and trails by 129 runs at stumps on day one with Usman Khawaja (30*) and Cameron Green (6*) on the crease. Smith had a disappointing start to a new chapter of his career as a Test opener as he could manage only 12 runs.
Earlier, West Indies batted first and got bundled out at 188 runs. Kirk McKenzie was the highest scorer of the side as he scored 50 runs off 94 balls with seven fours.
In the end, Joseph also contributed I36 runs which included three fours and a six in his innings. With this score, he became the highest scorer of West Indies while batting at No. 11.
For Australia, the highest wicket-takers were Josh Hazelwood and Pat Cummins who grabbed four wickets each in their respective spells. One wicket each was taken by Mitchell Starc, and Nathan Lyon in their respective spells.
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