Home-town century soothes Perth pain for Head

‘Long week thinking about it’: Head converts after Perth 99

Having stewed on his dismissal for 99 last week, Travis Head admits his first Test century in his hometown Adelaide was a monkey off his back.

In front of the biggest first-day crowd at an Australia-West Indies Test in Adelaide since 1982, Head surged to his fifth Test ton under lights, this one coming off just 125 balls in the last half-hour before stumps.

It had been nearly three decades since a South Australian had scored a hundred in their home Test, with Greg Blewett the last to do it during the 1994-95 Ashes when he posted an unbeaten 102.

‘Mayor of Adelaide’ Head hammers hometown hundred

But Head had been more concerned with the events of last week than last century, having fallen one run short of triple-figures during the first NRMA Insurance Test against the Windies in Perth last week.

There were no such worries on Thursday as Alzarri Joseph, with Head on 96, served up a half-volley outside off stump which the left-hander swiftly dispatched to the mid-off boundary.

“After last week and not getting over the line – it was a bloody long week thinking about it,” Head told cricket.com.au. “It was nice first innings back to get the monkey off the back as such.

“One run means a great deal in cricket.

“My oath (I stewed on it). It’s amazing how things pan out and what cricket does to you. It’s a stats-based game and when you work as hard as we do, when it comes as close as that, it was tough to take.

“But it’s nice when it comes around a few days later. To get through that is nice and now I don’t have to worry about it anymore.”

While Head struggled on Australia’s overseas tours of Pakistan and Sri Lanka this year, his home Test numbers continue to improve after earning player-of-the-series honours during last summer’s Ashes.

All five of his Test hundreds have come at home, where he averages 56.40, while his strike-rate of 60.74 has made a valuable weapon to advance the scoring rate in the middle order.

Marnus Labuschagne, with whom Head survived the entire last session under lights when batting is usually at its hardest as the pair put on an unbeaten 199-run stand, believes the left-hander is benefiting from being encouraged to bat his own way.

“I always felt like once he played like he wanted to and like we knew he could, almost just taking the shackles off and just letting him play,” said Labuschagne.

“He’s certainly not someone who’s got a perfect forward defence but he takes attacks down, he’s so hard to bowl to and when he’s on a roll he makes big scores.

“I’ve been playing with Travis since we were 12 – we played against each other at an Under-12 carnival and every carnival since then we played (against each other).

Milestones galore as Marnus, Head take full control

“He’s always been able to change the game. I’ve played so many games against Travis when we’ve had South Australia on the ropes and he comes out and just changes the game and all of a sudden you’re scrambling.

“He’s just a hard person to stop when he’s going because he just plays a bit awkward, he sits back and gets low on that back foot and cuts the ball out to the offside.

“The Australian conditions just suit him beautifully. The bouncier wickets with the width, just staying a bit more leg-side cutting and pulling.”

Redbacks coach Jason Gillespie, South Australia’s most prominent Test cricketer of this century, was on hand to witness Head’s innings as a commentator for ABC Radio.

The state has struggled to produce its share of international men’s cricketers in recent years but the Adelaide crowd will likely get the chance to see another local boy in action on Friday.

Wicketkeeper Alex Carey chould get his first hit of the series having not been required with the bat in Perth.

“It means a lot. They’re always nice to play at home – I had an opportunity a few years ago (in Adelaide, against Pakistan in 2019) and didn’t get a bat, bowl or take a catch,” said Head.

“There haven’t been many (SA batters) to play, we’ve had scarce opportunities. It’s nice to have two in at the moment playing regularly.

“When guys from South Australia got opportunities (in the past) and it didn’t quite go to plan and didn’t play as much as they or other people thought they should have – it is one of those things.

“The home crowd loves the home players playing so it’s nice to give them something to cheer about. It’s something to remember.”

Men’s NRMA Insurance Test Series v West Indies

First Test: Australia won by 164 runs

Dec 8-12: Second Test, Adelaide Oval, 3pm AEDT (day-night)

Australia squad: Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Marcus Harris, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Lance Morris, Michael Neser, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, David Warner

West Indies squad: Kraigg Brathwaite (c), Jermaine Blackwood, Nkrumah Bonner, Shamarh Brooks, Tagenarine Chanderpaul, Roston Chase, Joshua Da Silva, Jason Holder, Alzarri Joseph, Kyle Mayers, Marquino Mindley, Anderson Phillip, Kemar Roach, Jayden Seales, Devon Thomas

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