Needing to win the game and keep their hopes of entering the knock-outs alive, Australia came up with one of their more complete performances since the start of the Super 12s stage. They restricted the powerpacked West Indies batting line-up to just 157 on a good wicket and later chased that down in 16.2 overs.
Apart from the semi-final push, Australia’s biggest positive out of this win was an encouraging effort with the bat from experienced opener David Warner, who had been out of form, but played a vintage knock of 89* off 56 balls in the run-chase.
His innings featured the explosive strokeplay that his fans have come to associate with him over the years. He struck nine fours and four sixes and batted right till the end, hitting the winning run at the start of the 17th over.
The left-hander stitched a superb partnership with allrounder Mitchell Marsh that lasted 124 runs off just over 12 overs. Marsh, who had shown glimpses of his blistering form against Bangladesh, unleashed his wrath on the West Indies attack here and made 53 off 32 balls. He was out caught near the finish line, trying to hit Chris Gayle over mid-off.
Australia lost their in-form captain Aaron Finch (9) quite early, but the Warner-Marsh duo ensured they still ended with a big win that only further strengthened their footing in the knock-outs.
Apart from young left-arm spinner Akeal Hosein (1/29), none of the West Indies bowlers looked like stopping the rampaging Warner-Marsh partnership. As was the case throughout the tournament, the Caribbean bowlers just didn’t seem to possess the arsenal to break the run-scoring against quality batters when there isn’t a sizeable score to work with.
It was an emotional game for Dwayne Bravo, as it was his last game in the West Indies colours, having announced his retirement from international cricket a day earlier. He (10 & 0/36) couldn’t shine, but his teammates and the opposition players gave him a guard of honour for his fantastic contribution over the years.
As they did for Gayle, who didn’t officially announce that he is calling it a day but gave enough signs – he was given a round of applause by teammates when he walked up to bat, he called himself “semi-retired” ahead of the game among other gestures – to suggest that it was indeed quite possibly his last international game.
Coming back to the game, West Indies once again left a lot to be desired on the batting front, scoring less than 160 on what was a good batting wicket. They started off promisingly with Gayle (15) and Evin Lewis (29), hitting a few big shots in the powerplay but then lost a flurry of wickets to lose control.
Skipper Kieron Pollard (44*) was the only one to end with something to savour. It required successive sixes off the last two balls from Andre Russell (18*) for the WI to cross the 155-mark.
Before those sixes, Mitchell Starc (1/33) was carrying fantastic figures with him. Josh Hazlewood picked up four wickets (4/39) earlier in the game. Pat Cummins ended with 1/37 off his four overs. But while the wickets went to the Aussie quicks, the real pick of the attack were Adam Zampa (1/20,) and Marsh (0/16), who gave away only 36 runs off their seven overs and forced the Caribbean batters to take excessive risks against the pacers.
Brief scores
West Indies 157/7 in 20 overs (Pollard 44; Hazlewood 4/39, Zampa 1/20) lost to Australia 161/2 in 16.2 overs (Warner 89*, Marsh 53; Hosein 1/29) by 8 wickets
