West Indies scripted another victory over the visiting Australian side and finished the five-match T20I series with an impressive 4-1 scoreline this Friday. Opening batsman Evin Lewis and left-arm pacer Sheldon Cottrell were the two stand-out performers.
Lewis’ exceptional innings of 79 off 34 balls helped the Calypso Kings reach an intimidating score of 199/8 after winning the toss and opting to bat first. The free-flowing knock from the aggressive left-hander included 4 fours and 9 sixes.
Cottrell gave away only 28 runs off his four overs in a high-scoring encounter and bagged three wickets on the night.
Besides Lewis, there wasn’t any other eye-catching individual effort from the rest of the West Indies batting, but crucial blitz from Chris Gayle (21 off 7 balls) and Nicholas Pooran (31 off 18) did certainly help propel the team to near the 200-mark despite stutters in the last phase of the innings.
Wrist-spinner Adam Zampa (2/30) and all-rounder Mitchell Marsh (2/12) bowled well for the Aussies. But the rest of the attack proved expensive, including pacer Andrew Tye, who, even though picked up three wickets, conceded over nine runs per over in his spell of 3/37.
In the run-chase, the visitors lost opener Josh Phillipe (0) without him troubling the scorers, before skipper Aaron Finch (34) and in-form Marsh (30) tried to maximise the powerplay restrictions and kept Australia in touch with the asking rate. Marsh went at a strike-rate of 200 during his short 15-ball stay before he was dismissed.
Finch, however, stayed at the crease and built another decent partnership with No.4 Moises Henriques. The Aussies were quite well placed in their chase at 93/2 after the 9th over. But then a flurry of wickets rocked them hard and they were left behind in the game. Finch was out to an excellent one-handed catch by Fabian Allan, which was followed by a run-out of Henriques from Pooran.
With the two right-handers gone and Matthew Wade accompanying fellow left-hander Alex Carey, stand-in captain Pooran saw it as an opportunity to slip in a few overs of Gayle and cover for the struggling Oshane Thomas. Always a handy part-time spinner, Gayle didn’t disappoint his skipper and went for just 9 runs in his three-over spell to push the asking rate to over 11 an over.
Wade, who was demoted in the batting line-up, still made a 26 off 18 before he was prized out by Andre Russell. Russell ended with two further strikes in his spell on the night as West Indies kept the Aussies at bay to win by a margin of 16 runs.
Brief scores
West Indies 199/8 in 20 overs (Evin Lewis 79, Nicholas Pooran 31; Andrew Tye 3/37, Mitchell Marsh 2/12) beat Australia 183/9 in 20 overs (Aaron Finch 34, Mitchell Marsh 30; Sheldon Cottrell 3/28, Andre Russell 3/43) by 16 runs.
