Former captain Nicholas Pooran and current captain Rovman Powell hit blistering half-centuries, and West Indies got a further boost to their confidence heading into the ICC Men’s Twenty20 World Cup when they beat Australia by 35 runs in a warm-up match on Thursday in Trinidad and Tobago.
Pooran teed off with five fours and eight sixes in 75 from only 25 balls, and Powell erased concern about his form with four fours and four sixes in 52 from 25 balls, and the Caribbean side piled up 257 for four after they were put in to bat in the match at Queen’s Park Oval in Port-of-Spain.
An enterprising 55 off 30 balls from Josh Inglis anchored the Australian reply of 222 for seven, but the visitors could not match the explosive batting of the tournament co-hosts.
West Indies were 38 for one in the third over when Pooran came to the crease, and he struck his first three legal balls for sixes, and he continued to explore the length and depth of his repertoire of strokes against an undermanned Aussie attack.
Left-arm spinner Ashton Agar and leg-spinner Adam Zampa were the main targets of punishment from Pooran, and he smashed them for five sixes in six balls in the first two overs outside the Power Play, which ended with the home team on 78 for one.
Pooran reached his half-century in only 16 balls before substitute fielder Andre Borovec, one of the assistant coaches making the Australia number for the match because a handful of their World Cup players had not yet arrived, dropped him.
Zampa got him caught in the deep in the tenth over, and Powell took over after his departure, and West Indies 194 for four when part-time off-spinner Tim David bowled him in the 16th over, paving the way for Sherfane Rutherford to bring a flourishing finish to the innings with 47 not out off 18 balls.
Left-arm spinner Gudakesh Motie and strike bowler Alzarri Joseph bagged two wickets apiece for the Caribbean side, and Australia put up a decent show with Inglis leading the way, Nathan Ellis supporting with 39 and Agar getting 28 in what was going to be a difficult chase for the 2021 T20 World Cup winners.
West Indies is bidding to become the first team to win an unprecedented third T20 World Cup and will play in Group “C” of the tournament with ICC full members, Afghanistan and New Zealand, and ICC associate teams, Papua New Guinea and Uganda.
Their first two matches in the tournament will be at the Guyana National Stadium, where they face the Papuans on Sunday and take on the Ugandans six days later.
The Caribbean side will complete the group stage against the Black Caps, as the New Zealanders are known, on June 12 at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy in Trinidad, and the Afghans five days later at the venue named after their head coach, Daren Sammy in his homeland of St Lucia.
West Indies won their two titles under the leadership of Sammy and the guidance of coaches Ottis Gibson in 2012 and Phil Simmons in 2016.
