Australia ground out an 82-run lead with six wickets remaining in their second innings after another dramatic day in the first Test against West Indies in Bridgetown.

The tourists, having posted just 180 on Wednesday, trailed by 10 runs when West Indies made 190 in their first innings.

There then looked to be trouble for Australia when they lost early wickets batting second time around and stumbled to 65-4, before the fifth-wicket pair of Travis Head and Beau Webster steered the team to stumps at the end of day two.

Head faced 37 balls for his 13 not out, while Webster scored more briskly, reaching 19 in just 24 deliveries, as they crucially stayed together for eight testing overs.

Australia will begin day three on 92-4, looking for Head and Webster to propel them towards a healthy lead.

After 14 wickets fell on day one, hosts West Indies resumed their first innings on 57-4 at the start of Thursday's play and soon lost Brandon King, bowled by Josh Hazlewood for 26.

Wicketkeeper Shai Hope joined captain Roston Chase in the middle and the pair put on 67 before the latter was controversially given out lbw to Pat Cummins for 44 despite appearing to possibly edge the ball on to his pads.

West Indies lost wickets at regular intervals before being bowled out, with a late Alzarri Joseph flurry handing them a 10-run lead. Hope top-scored with 48.

Mitchell Starc, who was arguably the pick of the Australia bowlers in taking 3-65 in West Indies' first innings, predicted the match would continue to follow a familiar pattern.

He said of West Indies' effort with the bat: "They had a partnership in the middle and played pretty well, but the bowlers have been in the game and no doubt it will be the same tomorrow.

"There were a couple that stayed low and a couple that popped up. It will be interesting to see how it changes on Friday."

Asked about the controversial dismissal of Chase, Starc added: "We can only ask the questions and then it goes to the officials. One of those went against us and a couple went against the West Indies.

"It is only the end of day two so there is still a lot of time. We will try and get as many runs as we can and hopefully it is a total we can defend as bowlers."