The T20 World Cup is just a few days away and before that, West Indies will play a two-match T20I series against Australia. In the first match on Wednesday, the visitors suffered a narrow defeat by 3 wickets due to poor fielding.
The visitors’ chaotic fielding helped Matthew Wade and Mitchell Starc take Australia home. The last over by fast bowler Sheldon Cottrell was full of drama.
Needing just 11 of the last six balls, the residents’ Wade was dropped by Ramon Riffer in the deep in the second ball and missed the opportunity to take the wicket of Starc on the way back for the winning run.
As a result, the Australians scored 146 runs for the loss of 7 wickets and surpassed the West Indies first innings score of 145 runs for the loss of 9 wickets. Alzarri Joseph took 2 wickets for 17 runs and bowled with good control.
The 25-year-old believes that despite the defeat, it was a good showing from the Caribbean team but that they are hungry to level the series. He said after the match,
“Obviously, we are looking forward to win so we can level the series. It’s a quick turn-around, so it’s just for us now to have our meetings and get that in the back of our minds that we have to win that game to level the series,” said Joseph.
“For me, it’s always about adding the one per cent every day, keep on trusting the process, play hard and keep on doing what I need to get the success. Personally, I’m happy, so, hopefully, next game, I could go one better and help the team get over the line.
“It wasn’t the result we wanted, but we pushed Australia to the last over. We just have to go back and see what we need to improve on for the next game,” added Joseph.
Regardless of the result of the match, the West Indies bowlers managed to control the kangaroos very well. The much-criticized Yannic Cariah took one wicket for 15 runs in his quota and the rest of the bowlers rallied around Cotterell and Joseph to take Australia to the last over.
The fast bowler heaped praise on Trinidad and Tobago leg-spinner Yannic Carriah. Joseph stated,
“It wasn’t the result we wanted but we really fought hard. We pushed Australia down to the last over, so all in all it was a fairly good performance we just have to go back and see what we can improve for the next game.”
The crucial second match starts tomorrow and both the teams will enter the match in very good mind.