Marsh, Voges tons in Aussie run glut

The ruthless Australian dominance that many had predicted came to pass just a day into the Frank Worrell Trophy series after Adam Voges and Shaun Marsh led a run riot against a depleted and dispirited West Indies attack at Hobart's Blundstone Arena.

In the process of brutally putting paid to theories that the young West Indian team's best chance of competing in the three-Test series is with the ball, both Western Australians notched significant personal milestones.

OPTUS EXCLUSIVE: Extended highlights

Voges' 174no from 204 balls faced 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.

WATCH: Voges goes big in Hobart

The Perth pair's fourth-wicket union that will resume tomorrow unbroken on 317 was 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.

From a team perspective, the stumps total of 3-438 was the most dominant first day of a Test seen in Australia since the home team plundered 5-482 against South Africa in 2012 on an Adelaide Oval reduced in dimension by the redevelopment work that was taking place.

And not far shy of the all-time benchmark for day one of a Test, which remains Australia's 6-494 at the Sydney Cricket Ground when South Africa toured for the first time in 1910-11.

WATCH: Shaun Marsh's maiden Test century on home soil

As if events of the day's final four hours or so could have turned more sour for the visitors who began this tour carrying low public expectations only to see them subside further, the immediate future of their fastest bowler Shannon Gabriel rests in the hands of doctors.

Gabriel, who clocked speeds above 150kph and claimed the game's first breakthrough, left the field during the afternoon suffering from pain in his left ankle and was due to undergo scans after stumps to ascertain the extent of the problem.

WATCH: Gabriel's huge no ball

If the West Indies are to negotiate the remainder of this Test minus a bowler it will be an even more perilous journey, given they are also a batsman shy by their own choice.

It's not unfair to suggest the West Indies entered this Test without hope, given that batsman Shai Hope was one of four members of the touring party overlooked, along with Shane Dowrich, Carlos Brathwaite and spinner Devendra Bishoo.

WATCH: Bishoo spins web in Dominca

The latter's absence was a surprise to those who recalled the stunning leg break that Bishoo conjured to knock over Brad Haddin when the teams fought out the previous Frank Worrell Trophy series in the Caribbean earlier this year.

Described at the time by some with a keener sense of theatre than history as 'the ball of the century'.

But the decision to include 23-year-old left-arm spinner Jomel Warrican – with a solitary Test and six wickets to his name – was soon revealed to be a potentially strategic ploy to target Australia's top-order behind the camouflage of the four-man pace attack's misfiring artillery.

Indeed, the day was but 11 overs old, by which time Australia had rattled up 75 runs against a fast bowling complement recognisable as West Indian only through the maroon caps most sported, when the spinner was thrown the ball.

WATCH: First session highlights from Hobart

Perhaps it was a move pre-ordained to coincide with the arrival of Steve Smith at the crease, as it came in the immediate wake of Joe Burns' dismissal.

Rather like the Australia opener himself, nobody at Blundstone Arena saw what was coming after the West Indian quicks had served up a generous helping of wide half-volleys during a profligate opening hour, only for Gabriel to deliver a peach that tilted back Burns' middle stump.

WATCH: Gabriel pegs back Burns' middle stump

However, if the tourists were tempted to capitalise on that breakthrough by ramping up the pressure on Smith and the sublimely in-form David Warner then that lure very quickly passed.

By the time Smith took guard to face the diminutive spinner for the first time, midway through the first over of Warrican's maiden spell, the Australia skipper looked up to find four fielders scattered to the boundary rope in an arc stretching from deep cover to the backward square-leg fence.

It might also have been a public concession that the green-tinged Blundstone pitch that had prompted so much wide-eyed preview material earlier in the week was not delivering the assistance to bowlers that West Indian captain Jason Holder had believed heading out to the coin toss.

Where he revealed that had he managed to call correctly for the first time in his embryonic captaincy career he would likely have bowled first, not realising that the grass masked a pitch that yielded slow, 'tennis ball' bounce and very little else.

It's not just visiting teams that have been deceived by the decidedly emerald hue of the Hobart strip.

Tasmania's born-and-bred skipper George Bailey fell for it as recently as a fortnight ago when he chose to unleash his bowlers first against South Australia in a Sheffield Shield fixture, only to see the West End Redbacks finish the first day at 3-441 and subsequently declare their first innings at 7-600.

That's a scoreline that was staring Holder and his fellow bowlers squarely in the face when David Warner reached his half-century – albeit with a fraught single that could easily have seen Smith run out for 9 – and the Australians posted their team ton soon after off just 18 overs.

WATCH: Warner's inning highlights

But it was then that the spinner ploy paid a double dividend, with Warrican getting rid of a strangely subdued Smith for 10 off 37 balls faced, an innings in which the Australia No.3 was never able to find contentment or timing.

While the delivery that removed Australia's top-ranked batter was a gem – angled in from around the wicket only to straighten at slow enough pace to coax Smith into following it with his bat and edging low to slip – the one that accounted for Warner four overs later was quite the opposite.

Though no less effective.

Warrican, who had received his West Indies cap from former Caribbean great Sir Garfield Sobers when he made his Test debut in Sri Lanka seven weeks ago, claimed to have been almost embarrassed upon taking his maiden Test wicket in that match because it came via a rank full toss.

WATCH: Warrican's wizardry removes Smith

But he couldn't hide his delight upon deceiving Smith, and again when he winkled out Warner although it's unlikely the leg side catch that came when Warner tried to turn a slow long-hop off his hip will retrospectively please the bowler any more than it did the disbelieving batsman.

From there, the game meandered along with all the speed, intent and directional inevitability of the yachts seen cruising on the curiously sedate Derwent River Estuary that laps the eastern perimeter of the picturesque stadium.

WATCH: Second session highlights from Blundstone Arena

As the pitch flattened out and turned increasingly straw-coloured in the ceaseless sunshine, Voges and Marsh made hay against an attack that oscillated between listless and toothless.

Its nadir arriving in the period immediately post-tea when part-time spinners Kraigg Brathwaite and Jermaine Blackwood operated in tandem as Holder tried to pick up the agonisingly slow over rate that has already cost him a suspension in his brief captaincy career.

Though he may be looking for a game off should the series follow the same inexorable path as the afternoon and evening session did today.

Australia: Steve Smith (c), David Warner, Joe Burns, Adam Voges, Shaun Marsh, Mitchell Marsh, Peter Nevill, Peter Siddle, James Pattinson, Josh Hazlewood, Nathan Lyon. Nathan Coulter-Nile (12th man).

West Indies: Jason Holder (c), Kraigg Brathwaite, Rajendra Chandrika, Darren Bravo, Marlon Samuels, Jermaine Blackwood, Denesh Ramdin, Kemar Roach, Jerome Taylor, Jomel Warrican, Shannon Gabriel. Carlos Brathwaite (12th man).