T20 World Cup, Australia vs West Indies: Win on-demand, and Australia delivers the dagger against West Indies for an eight-wicket victory. David Warner shines bright while chasing the 158 run target.
The recent IPL winning team member, Josh Hazlewood, was outstanding. Completely crushed the West Indies middle order with his four scalps. Although he was a bit expensive, his four wickets overweigh it.
The effort was there for West Indies. They played and batted differently. It was full of intent right from the front. Starting from Gayle’s two sixes and ending at Andre Russell’s powerful cameo. It was solid innings had they managed to build a partnership.
Bowlers were pretty good but not up to the mark of expectations. The recent five wickets achiever was again quite efficient and was rewarded with Evin Lewis’s wicket too.
The West Indies skipper led from the front to power their innings. Pollard’s effort proved vital for the upcoming batters which provided them with a heap of confidence.
Russell the Muscle came to the party for a tiny bit of time just playing seven balls. These seven balls consisted of two sixes and a boundary making it 18 runs unbeaten with Jason Holder.
Picking up on wickets each, Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc both were pretty expensive. Giving over 9 and 8 an over respectively. Marsh also bowled three overs without any wicket gave 16 runs.
The chase was simple with an early hiccup however Australia did not flicker. David Warner was on the top of his game and also hungry for runs being out of form for some time now. He remained not out to see of the game.
The left-arm spinner, Akeal Hosein, took Australian skipper, Aaron Finch, with a flatter delivery. Finch stayed back tried to cut the ball but took the inside edge and castled the stumps.
Then came Mitchell Marsh and with David Warner, he took the game away with ease. It was like West Indies bowlers were powerless. The pace bowlers were not going to be effective as seen in the first innings. However, the spinners too were bowling passively.
No planning, no strategy, and no management from the West Indies side were the reason for their loss. It’s like they play instinctive cricket. Chris Gayle plays his final T20I for the West Indies and ends with a wicket of Mitchell Marsh. His colleague, Dwayne Bravo, also takes the bow from T20I.
The Player of the match was given to David Warner for his exclusive knock. Watch Australia vs West Indies, ICC T20 World Cup 2021.
ICC T20 World Cup 2021, Australia vs West Indies: post match conference.
David Warner:
“I am satisfied with my performance and hoping we make it to the semi-finals. The key was to play my natural game. The bowlers have been outstanding in this competition. DJ Bravo is someone people look up to and Gayle is the one, I have looked up to.”
Kieron Pollard:
“It has been a disappointing campaign and the batting has not been up to the mark and our bowling was decent but overall were not good enough. Bravo and Gayle has done good things for the game and are very proud of them. It’s the end of a generation. We have some guys who have been doing good things in T20 cricket in our team and around the world. We have to look at the way we play this format and have to start a foundation now.”
Aaron Finch:
“The way Gayle and Lewis started, we thought it was going to be a long day at first. The plan was to get Marsh early into the crease to get some time to settle in the middle and once the partnership grew there was no stopping them. We have to wait for South Africa’s game and we will have our fingers crossed. We will be on our bus while the game would be going on. If the result does not go our way, we can at least go back with our heads held high.”
