All 71 balls of Joseph’s match-winning spell with a busted toe

At 11pm on Saturday night, Shamar Joseph couldn’t walk and was waiting in a Brisbane hospital for scans on a toe crushed by a Mitchell Starc delivery.

By 11am on Sunday, he was still in bed and not planning on leaving it. By noon, he was at the Gabba. By 2.15pm, he was on the pitch.

Three hours later, Joseph, who last year was working 12-hour shifts as a security guard, was racing across the Gabba with seven wickets, a slice of Caribbean history and 10 teammates in hot pursuit.

In just 71 balls, the 23-year-old triggered an almighty Australian collapse. It was not only one of the West Indies’ greatest wins, but also one of the biggest upsets in Test history.

We have broken down every one of those deliveries, in one of the most remarkable spells ever bowled.

Joseph takes the ball after 40 minutes of play, having not expected to take the field at all, so much so he left his kit at the hotel. He was sitting in the dressing room “in just my shoes, boxers and hat” before play, but enters the fray with Steve Smith and Cameron Green cruising.

Joseph offers Green width outside off with his fourth ball. It flies away over third slip courtesy of a thick edge. Next ball, he oversteps but hits 140km/h, busted toe and all. Green responds with a sumptuous off drive for four on the up.

Green is piling into Joseph and, after facing 12 balls (including two no-balls), he has 19 runs from the Guyanese pace ace. Joseph responds from wide of the crease, at 141.8 km/h on a length. The angle is one thing, the spitting bounce – tracked at 12 centimetres higher than that length from the rest of the game – is another. Green’s bottom hand wears the blow, followed by his back thigh pad and off stump.

Travis Head walks to the crease on a king pair (two golden ducks in one game). Joseph goes around the wicket to the left-hander and rifles the pink ball in at 141.8km/h. A hint of outswing castles him. Joseph is on a hat-trick.

Joseph’s hat-trick ball to Smith is full and aiming for bowled or LBW as he shuffles across the crease, but the opener deals with it well. He and Mitch Marsh negotiate the over without incident.

Marsh hammers a wide, short ball through gully in the air for four. Joseph cranks up to 144km/h next delivery, digging in back of a length on a fourth-stump line. The straightening ball has Marsh defending awkwardly, edging straight to Alick Athanaze at second slip.

He juggles and Justin Greaves at third helps him out. Alex Carey is then greeted with two balls that rap him on the pads from a length. He’s beaten all ends up outside off to finish the over.

Joseph continues around the wicket to left-hander Carey and nails the angling full ball at 145.4km/h once more. His suspect front-foot defence proves exactly that.

Carey’s feet don’t move and his off stump is rattled via a back-pad deflection. Joseph has four wickets in 16 balls. Mitchell Starc marches to the crease swinging from the outset. First ball he jams down on and punches through mid-on for four, the third is hammered to the mid-off boundary as well.

Starc continues to swing away and Smith joins in, punching a glorious back-foot drive through the covers, sending a 143.9km/h offering away at double speed.

Joseph breaks through 146 km/h – he’s getting significantly quicker as his spell wears on – and Starc responds by smashing him through mid-on for four from well outside off.

Shamar Joseph feeling the love after his fifth wicket.Credit: Getty

Next ball, he skies a top-edged pull up over the slips. Third man Greaves takes it on the first bounce.

A Smith single brings Starc back on strike and Joseph pushes 147km/h with a short ball. He swings hard again and toes the ball high into the air for Kevin Sinclair to take a simple catch at cover.

Joseph sinks to the turf after claiming his second five-wicket haul in his first two Tests. He has five wickets and has gone at more than seven an over.

Pat Cummins is at the crease and, after a single, Joseph almost cracks 150km/h to Smith, who thumps a single to third man. With Cummins back on strike, Joseph delivers a brute of a ball.

It angles in and the skipper fends awkwardly, only able to edge through to a diving Joshua Da Silva behind the stumps. Smith is beaten two balls later, flashing at a short ball.

Nathan Lyon and Smith survive another testing over, the tailender top-edging a short ball from under his nose that falls just short of fine leg from the fourth delivery.

Joseph’s 10th straight over is the last before dinner and he’s still pushing 144km/h, mostly back of a length and targeting Lyon with short balls.

Dinner Break

Alzarri Joseph has Lyon caught behind at the other end and Shamar strives for the final wicket. His first ball of the session is pulled audaciously by Smith to the mid-wicket boundary.

Shamar Joseph’s bowling breakdown.Credit: ESPN Cricinfo.

Joseph follows up by smashing him on the glove with a short ball that just evades a fielder in the gully. He gets two balls at Josh Hazlewood to finish the over but wastes one with a full, wide ball.

Smith has taken eight runs from Alzarri Joseph’s intervening over, including a spectacularly ramped six straight out of his T20 playbook. Joseph begins his 12th over to the Australian with a 146 km/h bouncer that has Smith ducking late. It’s a beauty. Facing a spread field, he then carves out two to third man and brings the deficit to single figures with a run punched backward of point.

Hazlewood has two balls to survive. Joseph goes around the wicket. He rolls in with four slips. The ball whips in towards Hazlewood, launching at 142.9km/h. It pitches just outside off stump, Hazlewood prods forward, and the woodwork is flattened. History is made.

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