Windies captain Chase reacts to 'heartbreaking' new low

It started out with what he thought was a "realistic" target, but it quickly turned into a nightmare for West Indies captain Roston Chase that not even his opponents could believe was happening.

Six balls after bowling Australia out to set up a fourth-innings chase of 204 to beat the No.1-ranked Test team, West Indies were three down without scoring and the game effectively out of reach.

"A three-wicket maiden in the first over of a Test innings is just bonkers," said Aussie skipper Pat Cummins post-match.

"This morning we came here trying to extend out the day a little bit, hopefully set ourselves a total where we could be bowling a fair bit (from the) late afternoon into the night.

"But needn't have bothered, really, if 'Starcy' (Mitchell Starc) is going to turn up like that. It was just amazing."

After generally matching the tourists in the first innings of each match across the three-Test series, West Indies had fallen away in the second half of the first two Tests, bowled out for 141 in a session in Barbados and then 143 in Grenada, to hand Australia a pair of comfortable victories.

But no one could have foreshadowed a capitulation as extreme as 27 all out in the third Test in Jamaica, which gave Chase's side an unwanted slice of history with West Indies' lowest Test total and the second-lowest overall after New Zealand's 26 all out in 1955.

Starc removed John Campbell, Kevlon Anderson and Brandon King for ducks all in the opening over on his way to a career-best 6-9, before Scott Boland took a hat-trick as the home side crumbled in 14.3 overs.

"It's disappointing, we've been putting ourselves in positions to win games and then we just lay down and don't put up a fight in the last batting innings," Chase said.

"It's quite heartbreaking because we did it in all three Tests, and we're not really learning from our mistakes, so that's something we have to really look at.

"Being bowled out for less than 30 is quite embarrassing and something that you don't want as a team, but it's beyond us now, so we have to just try to improve from here."

Where West Indies go from here is the key question coach Daren Sammy and Chase must answer having entered the series with a new-look side and plenty of optimism, they've left it with one of their most embarrassing losses.

"Australia seems to set quite the benchmark for Test cricket so (when) you can play against them and compete or even beat them, you know you're on your way to becoming a good Test team," Chase said.

"We were neck and neck until the last innings in each game.

"We thought 204 was quite gettable … the wicket was still a good batting wicket, I didn't think there was too much devil in the wicket like the last two games where the ball was rolling or bouncing inconsistently.

"But then obviously, with the start … it's very difficult to get those runs from there."

The task doesn't get any easy for West Indies in their next Test assignment as they head to India in October for two matches in completely different conditions to what they’ve faced against Australia.

They entered the series with a gameplan prioritising batting faster over batting longer, blooding white-ball star Brandon King to debut in Barbados and recalling limited-overs captain Shai Hope for his first Test in more than three years.

But with King the only Windies batter to hit a half-century in a series where their collective batting average (14.13) was the second lowest of any bilateral Test campaign they've played, it's an approach West Indies may have to rethink going forward.

"The pitches were very tough," Chase said. "I don't want to say they were too in favour of the bowlers, but they were very tough because this is probably the first series I've ever played (where) no batter got hundred for (either) side.

"That's something that I've never really seen in a Test series and just goes to show how dominant the bowlers were."

Qantas Tour of the West Indies

First Test: Australia won by 159 runs

Second Test: Australia won by 133 runs

Third Test: Australia won by 176 runs

Australia Test squad: Pat Cummins (c), Sean Abbott, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Sam Konstas, Matt Kuhnemann, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Beau Webster

West Indies Test squad: Roston Chase (c), Jomel Warrican (vc), Kevlon Anderson, Kraigg Brathwaite, John Campbell, Keacy Carty, Justin Greaves, Shai Hope, Tevin Imlach, Alzarri Joseph, Shamar Joseph, Brandon King, Johann Layne, Mikyle Louis, Anderson Phillip, Jayden Seales

First T20I: July 20, Kingston, Jamaica (July 21, 10am AEST)

Second T20I: July 22, Kingston, Jamaica (July 23, 10am AEST)

Third T20I: July 25, Basseterre, St Kitts (July 26, 9am AEST)

Fourth T20I: July 26, Basseterre, St Kitts (July 27, 9am AEST)

Fifth T20I: July 28, Basseterre, St Kitts (July 29, 9am AEST)

West Indies T20 squad: TBC

Australia's T20 squad: Mitchell Marsh (c), Sean Abbott, Xavier Bartlett, Cooper Connolly, Tim David, Ben Dwarshius, Nathan Ellis, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Cameron Green, Aaron Hardie, Josh Inglis, Matt Kuhnemann, Glenn Maxwell, Mitch Owen, Matthew Short, Adam Zampa