T20 World Cup 2024: Australia, who came to the Caribbean with the intention of winning the T20 World Cup, suffered a major setback. The host West Indies defeated Australia by a large margin in the warm-up game. More worrying for Australia than the loss was the batting of its bowlers.
West Indies won 4 wickets for 257 runs against Australia. Nicholas Pooran’s bat brought the storm. Pooran scored 75 off 25 balls. He sent 13/25 balls over the boundary including 8 sixes. Just two days before the start of the T20 World Cup hosts West Indies showed the brilliance of their preparation.
The Windies team scored 257 runs in the warm-up match against Australia. Apart from Shai Hope (14), the career batsmen played a strong inning. In particular, wicketkeeper-batsman Nicholas Pooran showed how ready he is for the World Cup. Australian bowlers smashed Pooran with a storming 75-run run.
Pooran scored a total of 8 in sixes. Puran also received good support from Captain Rovman Powell. Powell scored a 25-ball 50. Sherfan Rutherford scored 42 off 18 balls and Johnson Charles 40 runs off 31 balls. Shimron Hetmyer was out after scoring 18 runs in 13 balls.
The Australian team played without Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc in this match and the difference was visible. Adam Jampa took the most 2 wickets for Australia but had to pay for it with 62 runs. Ashton Agar and Tim David scored one goal each. Chasing the 258-run target, Australia never looked close to victory.
Its opener David Warner got off to a good start with 15 runs from 6 balls but couldn’t take it any further. Another opener Ashton Agar was dismissed after scoring 28 off 13 balls. Captain Mitchell Marsh, who came into bat at number three, was denied after 4 runs.
Only Josh Inglis (55) could score a half-century from the Australian team, which lost by 60 runs by 3 wickets. Tim David and Matthew Wade were sent off after running 25-25. Known for their fast bowling, Nathan Ellis and Adam Zampa performed well in the final overs but it did not matter for the match.
Ellis scored 39 from 22 balls and Zampa 21 from 16 balls. Despite this, the Australian team scored only 222 runs for 7 wickets in 20 overs. Gudakesh Moti and Alzari Joseph took 2 wickets each for West Indies. Akeel Hussain, Shamar Joseph, and Obed McCoy got one wicket each.
