Harris leads Australia's turnaround against Windies in first Test

Bridgetown (Barbados), Apr 11 (ANI): Pacer Ryan Harris led Australia's fight back that allowed skipper Michael Clarke to make a declaration, a decision that was justified when Ben Hilfenhaus sent the top three West Indies batsmen back to pavilion in the first five overs of their second innings.

At stumps on day four, the Windies were 5-71 in their second innings, leading by 114 runs.

Australia's position seemed unlikely midway through the opening session, as three quick wickets left the tourists 8-258 in their first innings and staring down the barrel of a 150-run plus deficit, The Sydney Morning Herald reports.

But Harris engineered a remarkable turnaround; scoring his maiden Test half-century and adding 121 runs with tail-enders Ben Hilfenhaus (24) and Nathan Lyon.

While Harris's wicket of Shivnarine Chanderpaul has placed a huge dent in the hosts' hopes of saving the match, it was his innings, which pulled his country out of the mire.

Harris displayed tremendous concentration and determination to bat for three-and-a-half hours as Australia's tail took their team to a dominant position.

"We've done it pretty much all summer so it was just very important for us to get out there and make runs today and get as close as we could to the total. And that's what we did. Everyone, Hilfenhaus and even Lyon, we all worked together and got us close," Harris said.

"The declaration came at a good time, I thought . We'd spoken about it and we were probably going to give it three overs but we had that one over when we didn't score off and we didn't want to waste any more time. We just want to win the Test match," he said.

Any target in excess of 200 could prove tricky on the deteriorating track but Australia, trailing by 114, has to go for victory if time is on their side. (ANI)