West Indies have opened their five-match T20 series with an 18-run victory over Australia, who botched what had seemed a fairly straightforward chase. Australia were cruising at 5 for 117, chasing 146 runs for victory, but a spectacular middle order collapse saw Aaron Finch’s side lose five wickets for 10 runs and they were all out by the end of the 16th over.
Here are some key takeaways from the match:
Hazlewood fires with the white ball
This was Hazlewood’s tenth T20I appearance for Australia. Usually preferred for Tests over white ball cricket, the fast bowler made the most of his first outing of the tour.
In some ways Hazlewood is not a typical T20 bowler; the patience and consistency of his lines and lengths seem far more suited to the longer format and he doesn’t have as wide a range of variations as many short-form specialist bowlers possess.
But his pace and precision led to a frugal and fruitful opening spell of three overs, in which he took 2 wickets for 3 runs and bowled 16 dot balls.
His return at the death was also effective. He started his final over with two yorkers, the second of which was dragged on by the destructive Andre Russell as he attempted to drive.
If Hazlewood continues to bowl like this it will be hard to leave him out of the squad for the T20 World Cup.
Dre Russ belts his first T20I half-century
Errr… just read that heading again. How on earth is it possible that Andre Russell hasn’t scored 50 runs or more in the 54 T20 internationals he played before this match?
Coming in to bat down the order probably has something to do with it, and he made the most of the extra time when he came out to bat with West Indies struggling at 4 for 65.
Mitchell Starc played into Russell’s hands, bowling short and suffering the consequences.
A pair of flat-batted shots straight down the ground for six were stunning examples of Russell’s skill and power and produced the shot of the night when he smashed Starc miles over the roof and out of the ground to bring up his half-century.
Marsh at first drop
Matthew Wade is opening the batting in David Warner’s absence and that opened up an opportunity for Mitchell Marsh to come in at No.3 for the first time in his T20I career.
His timing was sublime, some big hits rivalled Russell for power and for the most part he did an excellent job of marshalling the chase and taking Australia to a commanding position.
But it all fell apart when he tried to play against the turn from Hayden Walsh Jnr and gently spooned the ball straight back to the bowler for the simplest of catches.
It sparked the calamitous collapse as the Australian middle and lower order imploded.
Too much aggression, not enough smarts
It doesn’t take a team of analysts and a fist full of data to figure out where Australia went wrong. After Marsh had taken them to a position from where they should have won easily, the middle order pushed harder and harder, even as the wickets kept falling.
Australia was well ahead of the run rate but, instead of cool heads knocking the ball around for singles and waiting for the boundary balls, they kept aiming up for the big shots and were all out with four overs still remaining.
Nothing should be taken away from the West Indies bowling and fielding; Obed McCoy’s canny slower balls and Walsh Jnr’s googlies were particularly effective. But this was a dismal batting performance, and Finch succinctly summed up where his side went wrong after the match.
“After the position that Marsh and Wade got us into, just a bit of game smarts would have got us over the line there but we sort of panicked a little bit, said Finch.
“We've been working on trying to be a little more aggressive in the middle overs but maybe just need to rein it in today and have some more smarts.
“There's no excuses for our batting display there. You've got to dust yourselves off and come again with the same attitude but just execute a little bit better under pressure."
