Ben Dwarshuis (4-36), followed by a combined batting effort by rookie Mitchell Owen (50 off 27) and Cameron Green (51 off 26), ruined the start to Andre Russell’s final series. Australia chased down West Indies’ 189/8 in the 19th over and easily defeated them, although losing seven wickets in the process. Australia won the opening match of the T20I series in Jamaica on Sunday, defeating the West Indies by three wickets after winning the Test series 3-0.
When Australia decided to bowl, Shai Hope and Brandon King took off. Cooper Connolly, a left-arm spinner, stopped them in their tracks after they struck two fours in each of the opening three overs. To keep the scoring rate at 10 runs per over, Hope hit King for a six after he had been stumped for 18. In the PowerPlay, he and Roston Chase drove West Indies to 56/1 before quickly going into overdrive.
Adam Zampa bowled a quiet delivery in the seventh over that was worth four runs, then Connolly went for 15 and then Zampa and Sean Abbott were removed for 12 and 16, which continued the carnage. Chase swiftly assumed the lead to attack the bowlers, hitting Abbott for four fours and Connolly for two fours and a six. West Indies reached 103/1 at the midway point as a result.
Chase reached his fifty off 26 balls in the eleventh over, but Ben Dwarshuis got rid of him in the thirteenth after the batsman mistimed a slower ball to Glenn Maxwell at long-on. Shimron Hetmyer showed up and joined the powerful crew with ease, putting his arms up right away as well.
Hetmyer put the West Indies on track for a score near or perhaps beyond 200, but Owen removed Hope for a 39-ball 55 in the 16th over.
But there was a stunning turnaround from 183/4 in 18 overs. Dwarshuis denied the West Indies a thrilling climax by dismissing Jason Holder, Sherfane Rutherford, and Andre Russell in four deliveries. West Indies finished with 189/8 after Hetmyer lost to Nathan Ellis on the 20th.
Mitchell Marsh and Josh Inglis steadied the ship in a 20-run fifth over from Russell, when the two batters blasted three sixes, after Jake Fraser-McGurk was dismissed in an early wobble. At the beginning of the sixth over, Alzarri Joseph got rid of Marsh, but he also let up three sixes to new batsman Green. Australia then left the PowerPlay at 64/2. Akeal Hosein and Gudakesh Motie then maintained West Indies’ chances by dismissing Inglis and Glenn Maxwell early in the middle overs. Green and Owen, however, came together for the game-winning 80 from 40 delivery.
Russell was treated harshly as he returned to bowl his second over in his penultimate international match. The two batsmen sprinted hard to take 18 from the over and launch Australia’s counterattack between two Owen sixes to start and finish the over. Then, in the 12th over, Owen hit Hosein for three consecutive sixes, the first of which went over square leg out of the ground. In the 14th over, which finished with four byes off a short ball too high for Hope to bag behind the stumps, Green went shoulder to shoulder with his free-spirited batting partner, hitting a four and a six off Holder.
Green hit a four through deep mid-wicket in the 15th over to get his 25-ball fifty, but Holder caught him at far on and he was out the very next delivery.
Owen continued with Connolly, who used a 100-meter six to send one from Chase to the roof and down the ground. The equation was reduced to 21 off 24 as a result. In addition to taking the lone wicket, Owen went on to complete a dream by getting fifty runs, but he was dismissed by Joseph a delivery later. However, West Indies just required 10 deliveries out of 18 at the end of that over. Connolly was dismissed by Holder to postpone that touch, but Sean Abbott and Dwarshuis carried out the chase in the last over.
India
