West Indies legends Brian Lara and Carl Hooper were emotional and shed tears of joy as Kraigg Brathwaite and his men created history by defeating Australia in Australia for the first time since 1997. West Indies won the second Test in Gabba by 8 runs and leveled the series 1-1.
West Indies had done well in the day-night Test to give tough competition to Australia, the reigning world Test champions. Set 216 to win the Test and the series, Australia lost wickets at regular intervals. Steve Smith remained unbeaten on 91, while Cameron Green with 42 and Mitchell Starc with 21 were the only batters to go past 20 after Smith.
Travis Head recorded a king pair, getting out for a duck on the first ball in both innings. Though early damage was done by Alzarri Joseph, removing Usman Khawaja and Justin Greaves dismissing Marnus Labuschagne, the rest was the Shamar Joseph show.
He bowled with pace and extracted extra bounce to trouble the Australian batters and the hosts had to answer to his bowling. Josh Hazlewood was the final victim, bowled by Shamar Joseph and the West Indies team celebrated a miracle win.
As soon as West Indies took the final Australia wicket, the commentary box saw Ian Smith, Adam Gilchrist, and Brian Lara go up in unison in celebration. Brian Lara was highly emotional and had tears in his eyes and embraced Gilchrist while talking about the victory.
"Unbelievable. 27 years to beat Australia in Australia. Young inexperienced, written off! This West Indies team can stand tall today. West Indies cricket can stand tall today. Today is a big day in West Indies cricket. Congratulations, Congratulations to every single member of that West Indies team," Brian Lara was seen saying in the video shared by commentator Mark Howard.
Not only Lara, but his former West Indies teammate and currently a coach with the team, Carl Hooper was also seen with tears in his eyes as he soaked up the moment of victory in the dressing room.
Here is the video:
