Skipper Steve Smith and in-form Adam Voges pounded the West Indies bowlers to push Australia’s first innings towards 500 on the second day of the second Test in Melbourne on Sunday.
The pair cruised along unbothered in the first session building their partnership for the fourth wicket to 145 as Australia looked to give the hapless Caribbean tourists a huge total to chase.
At lunch, Smith was unbeaten on 90 with Voges not out on 74 in Australia’s total of 473 for three after being sent into bat by Windies skipper Jason Holder.
Smith was closing in on his 13th Test century and sixth of the year and had passed England captain Alastair Cook with the most runs score in 2015 in the final Test of the year.
At the interval Smith had scored 1,360 runs ahead of Cook’s 1,357 with England currently playing South Africa in Durban.
Voges was also amongst the runs and at lunch had totalled 996 runs for the calendar year and was averaging an astonishing 510 in four Tests against the West Indies this year alone.
The Australian batsmen, with Usman Khawaja (144) and Joe Burns (128) scoring centuries on Saturday’s opening day, were averaging more than 146 runs per wicket lost in the Windies series, almost twice previous best in any Test series — 78.24 for Pakistan at home to Sri Lanka in 2009.
The tourists again struggled to make any impression in the rain-delayed Boxing Day showpiece after losing by an innings and 212 runs in the first Hobart Test.
So far in the series, Australia have amassed 1,056 runs for the loss of just seven wickets.