11 Dec 2015

Australia on top in Hobart

6:11 am on 11 December 2015

The West Indies cricketers already have their backs to the wall after the first day of the opening Test against Australia in Hobart.

Australia's Shaun Marsh plays a shot.

Australia's Shaun Marsh plays a shot. Photo: PHOTOSPORT

The homeside are 438 for three with both Adam Voges and Shaun Marsh scoring centuries.

Voges' 174 not out from 204 balls represents his highest Test score in a career that belatedly began in the Caribbean in June at the well-seasoned age of 35.

While Marsh's unbeaten 139 from a more sedate 205 deliveries was the maiden Test century in Australia for a player who has known triumphs abroad but more regular heartache and uncertainty at home.

The Perth pair's fourth-wicket partnership will resume today on 317 which is the largest Australia has crafted against the West Indies since the 336 posted by Bill Lawry and Doug Walters at Sydney in 1969, a decade before the Caribbean nations were the most feared in Test cricket.

It was also the most formidable fourth-wicket stand fashioned on Australian soil since dual double-century makers Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke's epic 386 that batted India into the ground at the Adelaide Oval in 2012.