New Delhi. Australia, which reached West Indies with the intention of winning the T20 World Cup, has suffered a big blow. Host West Indies defeated Australia by a big margin in the warm-up match. For Australia, more worrying than the margin of defeat was the thrashing of its bowlers. West Indies scored 257 runs for 4 wickets against Australia. Nicholas Pooran’s bat brought a storm. Pooran scored 75 runs in 25 balls. He sent 13 out of 25 balls across the boundary, which included 8 sixes.
Just two days before the start of the T20 World Cup, the host West Indies showed the glory of their preparations. The Windies team scored 257 runs in the warm-up match against Australia. Barring Shai Hope (14), the career batsmen played a strong innings. Especially wicketkeeper batsman Nicholas Pooran showed how prepared he is for the World Cup. Pooran smashed the Australian bowlers in his stormy innings of 75 runs. Pooran hit a total of 8 sixes.
Puran also got good support from captain Rovman Powell. Powell scored 50 runs in 25 balls. Sherfan Rutherford scored 42 runs in 18 balls and Johnson Charles scored 40 runs in 31 balls. Shimron Hetmyer was out after scoring 18 runs in 13 balls. Australia’s team came out without Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc in this match and the difference was clearly visible. Adam Jampa took the highest number of 2 wickets for Australia but he had to pay the price of 62 runs for this. Ashton Agar and Tim David took one wicket each.
Australia, chasing a target of 258 runs, never looked close to victory. Its opener David Warner made a good start by scoring 15 runs off 6 balls, but could not take it further. The other opener Ashton Agar was dismissed after scoring 28 runs off 13 balls. Captain Mitchell Marsh, who came to bat at number three, was dismissed after scoring 4 runs. From the Australian team, which lost 3 wickets within 60 runs, only Josh Inglis (55) was able to score a half-century. Tim David and Matthew Wade were dismissed after scoring 25-25 runs.
Nathan Ellis and Adam Zampa, known for their fast bowling, performed well in the last overs, but it did not make any difference to the match. Ellis scored 39 runs in 22 balls and Zampa scored 21 runs in 16 balls. Despite this, Australia’s team could only score 222 runs for 7 wickets in the stipulated 20 overs. Gudakesh Moti and Alzari Joseph took 2-2 wickets for West Indies. Akeel Hussain, Shamar Joseph and Obed McCoy got one wicket each.
Tags: Nicholas Pooran, Rovman Powell, T20 World Cup
FIRST PUBLISHED : May 31, 2024, 09:24 IST