Sports
West Indies bowlers orchestrate second-half heist
Jason Holder-inspired West Indies pulled off an incredible second-half heist to defend their total of 149/6 and take a 1-0 lead in the T20I series. In tough batting conditions in Trinidad, India fell apart in the second half of the chase. Arshdeep Singh threatened to ruin West Indies’ good work at the death but Romario Shepherd did enough to leave India five short in the end.
Five overs into India’s chase, West Indies’ once-modest total of 149/6 began to look far more daunting as they lost both their openers cheaply. Akeal Hosein beat Shubman Gill in the air and had him stumped in the third over while Ishan Kishan fell for a slower one from Obed McCoy, mistiming a heave to mid-on in the fifth.
Suryakumar Yadav might still be finding his feet and ‘learning’ his way through the 50-over format but T20s continue to come easy to him. He started off with a drive down the ground and a cut over deep point for a four and a six. Accompanying him in the carnage was debutant Tilak who showed there’s no such thing as nerves at this level anymore as he got off the mark with a disdainful shot over deep mid-wicket off an Alzarri Joseph ball delivered at 143kmph. Joseph pushed up the pace and pulled back the length for a similar result, this time the ball flying over deep square leg. The pair took India to 66/2 in 9 overs and put them in a fairly comfortable position despite Hosein’s tight three overs for just 15 runs.
The hosts clawed back over the next two overs and two Shimron Hetmyer catches. First, at cover, he took a sharp, low one off an uppish drive from Suryakumar and then one at deep backward square leg off a miscue from Varma. Just like that, India were down to 77 for 4 in 11 overs, needing 73 off 54 balls.
Runs didn’t come easy, and Hosein completed an immaculate spell of 1 for 17 in four overs, even as Hardik Pandya and Sanju Samson looked to drag India back on track. The pair got the odd boundary but had to gnaw at the deficit via singles and twos more often as they continued to struggle to middle the ball. The equation came down to 52 off 36 when a release over arrived. Hardik and Samson took 15 off McCoy, to put the pressure back on the hosts.
At 37 off 30 with two recognised batters in the middle, the game was still in India’s grasp but Jason Holder came back to rock the visitors again. He got his opposite number with an off-cutter before a direct hit from Mayers sent Samson packing. No runs were taken off it, leaving India’s long tail to get 37 off 24. Axar Patel, India’s last hope, injected life into the chase by going after Holder and getting a six down the ground in the 11-run 18th over that brought the equation down to 21 off 12. West Indies had also used up all the allotted time, and had to work with only four fielders outside the inner circle for the last two overs.
McCoy however, silenced the India fans by dismissing Axar on the first ball with a slower one but out walked Arshdeep to add another twist to what was turning out to be a dramatic finish to the chase. The left-hander flicked one past short fine leg fielder and then hit one over extra cover to keep the home side on their toes. It took India to the final over with 10 to get, but by the time Arshdeep got strike in the final over, India were eight down and still needed 9 from 4 balls. Romario Shepherd then nailed his wide yorkers to restrict Arshdeep and saw off the last batter, Mukesh Kumar, on the final ball when India needed six to win. In the end, India fell five runs short in chase.
Earlier in the day Brandon King began with a streaky four off the outside edge but made it his mission to try to maximise the PowerPlay. He gave debutant Mukesh the charge in his first over and took two successive fours off him. He then punished Arshdeep for straying down the leg side. Hardik brought on Axar in the fourth over and King responded by smashing him for a six with an inside-out shot over deep extra-cover.
On the first ball of the fifth over, India earned their first breakthrough when Yuzvendra Chahal appeared to have trapped Kyle Mayers leg-before. But replays showed it was a mistake from the left-hander to have not reviewed the call as the ball went well past the off-stump. Two balls later, Chahal ended King’s flamboyant stay by trapping him leg before. The opener – who scored 28 of the 29 runs on the board, took back a review with him.
Nicholas Pooran came out swinging for the fences like he was still in the blue of MI New York in Dallas where he played one of the finest T20 knocks and won a title with it. Like that day, he responded to the fall of wicket with a counter-punch as he hit Chahal for a four first ball and slog swept him for a six to end the double-wicket over. He gave Axar similar treatment to take West Indies to 54 for 2 in 6 overs.
On a slow surface, Hardik brought himself on and used change of pace to perfection as both Pooran and Johnson Charles struggled for fluency. India dug in further with a moment of brilliance on the field from Varma, who took a stunning catch in the deep to send Charles packing in the eighth over. Only 15 runs came from the four overs after the Power Play, taking West Indies to 69/2 at the halfway stage. Even after the drinks break, West Indies couldn’t quite push the scoring rate too high, as Hardik, Kuldeep Yadav and Chahal bowled well in tandem. The Indian skipper reaped the rewards of that phase as he got Pooran to hole out to deep mid-wicket and trudge off for a 34-ball 41.
Rovman Powell took the wheel from 96 for 4 in 14.1 overs and was largely responsible for his team getting to 149 for 6 in the end, with 42 coming off the last 30 balls. Powell slogged Hardik’s slower short ball over deep midwicket, muscled one over long-on from Chahal and then took on one of India’s trusted death-overs operators in Arshdeep. In the midst of a Powell-v-Indian bowlers tussle in the end, Mukesh bowled two high pressure overs – 18th and 20th – without giving away a single boundary. It took West Indies to 149/6 – a total which looked sub-par at that stage, but proved to be enough in the end.
Brief Scores:
West Indies 149/6 in 20 overs (Rovman Powell 48, Nicholas Pooran 41; Yuzvendra Chahal 2-24) beat India 145/9 in 20 overs (Tilak Varma 39, Suryakumar Yadav 21; Jason Holder 2-19, Obed McCoy 2-28, Romario Shepherd 2-33) by 4 runs
The first truly heavyweight clash of this expanded T20 World Cup format comes freighted with both history and subplots. A rematch of the 2010 World T20 final at Kensington Oval, the match pits Jos Buttler’s defending champions – who are aiming to become the first team to retain the trophy – against the Australian winning machine, victors at the 2021 edition and current world title-holders in Test and ODI cricket. And that’s before you throw in the Ashes for afters.
Already there is added pressure on England, after the rain in Bridgetown led to a share of the points in their opener against Scotland (and that having conceded 90 runs from 10 overs without taking a wicket in a tepid bowling display). Lose to their oldest rivals and it will leave their Super 8 prospects open to being waylaid by the perils of net run-rate calculations, or worse.
The Scotland match was the third abandonment in five suffered by England, after a rain-affected home series against Pakistan, which has clearly hampered their readiness for this campaign after almost six months without playing T20 together. It does not take much for a side to click in this format – and England looked in decent shape when they did get on the field against Pakistan – but Buttler will be anxious for things to go their way on Saturday, if only to avoid further questions referencing the team’s disastrous ODI World Cup defence last year.
Australia, under the laidback leadership of Mitchell Marsh would love nothing more than to add to the English sense of jeopardy – having helped bundle them out of the tournament in India on the way to taking the crown. Their head to head record is less impressive in T20 however, with England having won six of the last seven completed encounters, as well as that 2010 final.
Despite a wobble with the bat, Australia avoided mishap against Oman earlier in the week, the experience of David Warner and Marcus Stoinis shining through in difficult batting conditions. Surfaces in the Caribbean – not to mention those games staged in the USA – have already had teams scratching their heads; rather than the “slug-fest” England had prepared for, following a high-scoring tour of the Caribbean in December, it looks as if boxing smart may be the way to go.
Speaking of Warner, this could be the last time he faces up against England in national colours – and another match-winning contribution would likely reduce the chances of them meeting again in the knockouts. On the other side of the card is Jofra Archer, fresh from an emotional maiden outing at Kensington Oval and ready to take on Australia for the first time in any format since 2020. Can Mark Wood fire up England’s campaign, as he did during last summer’s Ashes? Will Pat Cummins be back to harass the old enemy once again? Seconds out, it’s almost time to rumble.
Cummins is set to return after being rested for the Oman game, which saw Mitchell Starc leave the field with cramp. Starc is understood to be fine and could keep his place – which would likely see Nathan Ellis miss out. Marsh is still not fit to bowl, with Australia likely to continue with the allrounder combination of Stoinis and Maxwell to give them cover.
Australia (probable XI): David Warner, Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh (capt), Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Josh Inglis (wk), Tim David, Pat Cummins, Nathan Ellis/Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood
The one change England may consider is Reece Topley coming in for Wood, with the expectation that there will be some rotation among the seamers through the course of the tournament.
England (probable XI): Phil Salt, Jos Buttler (capt & wk), Will Jacks, Jonny Bairstow, Harry Brook, Liam Livingstone, Moeen Ali, Chris Jordan, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid, Reece Topley/Mark Wood
[Cricinfo]
Once is coincidence, twice is a clue, and three times is proof.
To paraphrase Agatha Christie, that is the narrative around South Africa’s meeting with Netherlands at this T20 World Cup.
The Dutch beat South Africa at the 2022 tournament and ended their semi-final hopes in a match where South Africa appeared to be sleep walking, and then beat them again at the 2023 ODI World Cup, where they exposed South Africa’s vulnerability in the chase. If they to do the treble, not only will Netherlands take the lead in Group D, but they will offer conclusive evidence of the threat they pose to Full Members, especially South Africa.
Of course, it will take some doing after South Africa’s opening performance against Sri Lanka, where they reduced their opposition to their lowest T20I total and chased it down in fairly straightforward fashion thanks to the most stable middle-order of their white-ball era. In Aiden Markram, Tristan Stubbs, Heinrich Klaasen and David Miller, South Africa have bankers and big-hitters and, for this match, they also have the advantage of experience. They’ve already played at Eisenhower Park, and have first-hand knowledge that run-scoring doesn’t come easily;Klassen said they are prepared to use their “cricket brains” and play “smarter cricket”.
But the conditions could be good news for Netherlands, who are not naturally a line-up of big hitters and build their innings on a foundation of turning ones into twos. In other words, they tend to take a slightly more conservative approach to batting, which may work well here, but they’ll be wary of the uneven bounce of the surface and will have to come up with plans to counterattack especially against South Africa’s seamers. Their own bowlers were exemplary in Dallas and will look to build on that performance against a line-up that will likely be more proactive than Nepal’s, but who they have managed to keep quiet not once, but twice in the past. Third time’s the charm, they say.
Anrich Nortje’s stunning return to form against Sri Lanka means South Africa may not have to tinker with the bowling combination, and Gerald Coetzee and Tabraiz Shamsi may have to wait their turns to get a game. The batting line-up should be unchanged, with no space for Ryan Rickelton yet.
South Africa: Quinton de Kock (wk), Reeza Hendricks, Aiden Markam, Tristan Stubbs, Heinrich Klaasen (wk), David Miller, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Ottneil Baartman, Anrich Nortje
Conditions in New York may tempt Netherlands to include an extra seamer and they have Kyle Klein in their squad. But it could come at the expense of a shortened batting line-up and they may not want to risk that.
Netherlands: Michael Levitt, Max O’Dowd, Vikramjit Singh, Sybrand Engelbrecht, Scott Edwards (capt, wk), Bas de Leede, Teja Nidamanuru, Logan van Beek, Tim Pringle, Paul van Meekeren, Vivian Kingma
[Cricinfo]
Nuwan Thushara’s last over brought Sri Lanka screaming back into the match,as he first bowled Rishad Hossain, and then nailed Taskin Ahmed in front of the stumps with a pinpoint swinging yorker. This left Bangladesh eight wickets down, with 12 runs still to get.
However, the experienced Mahmudullah was at the crease for Bangladesh, and despite some further nervy moments, pushed Bangladesh across the line off the last ball of the 19th over.
But this was a match chiefly decided by Bangladesh’s own outstanding bowling. Mustafizur Rahman was the best among them, using shorter lengths and his cutters efficiently, to claim figures of 3 for 17. Rishad Hossain’s three-for through the middle overs also kept Sri Lanka quiet.
Mustafizur was instrumental in Sri Lanka’s downward spiral through the middle overs, which culminated in a crash-and-burn end. Ultimately, their inability to find boundaries, or even rotate strike against good Bangladesh bowling resulted in their downfall. A score of 125 for 9 always seemed poor on a decent pitch, even if their bowlers made a match of it in the end.
Brief scores:
Bangladesh 125 for 8 in 19 overs (Towhid Hridoy 40, Litton Das 36; Dhanajaya de Silva 1-11, Nuwan Thushara 4-18, Wanidu Hasaranga 2-32, Matheesha Pathirana 1-27) beat Sri Lanka124 for 9 in 20 overs (Pathum Nissanka 47, Dhananjaya de Silva 21; Tanzim Hasan Sakib 1-24, Taskin Ahmed 2-25, Mustafizur Rahman 3-17, Rishad Hossain 3-22) by two wickets
[Cricinfo]
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