- Chris Gayle reaches 14,000 T20 runs with 67 off 38 balls
- West Indies take unassailable 3-0 lead in five-match series
That match was a lot of fun tonight, a bit of everything. West Indies have the series wrapped but, but Australia have two more matches to try to get something out of this contest for themselves. Thursday morning Australian time will be the next engagement, Wednesday evening in the Caribbean. We’ll do it all again.
Related: Chris Gayle powers West Indies to T20 series win as Australia’s batting woes continue
Nicholas Pooran: “Top game. We kept asking for improvement, how can we get better, and tonight we came out and executing our plans with bat and ball. [Gayle] had a long speech just now, there’s a reason why he’s scored 14,000 T20 runs, he’s the greatest batsman to play the game. Very pleased for him personally. [Winning as captain] only happened because of the bunch of guys we have here, a very special group of guys, I can’t ask for better T20 cricketers around me, the experience and knowledge in that dressing room. I know [Pollard] is listening and is watching, he’s my mentor, and this is a special feeling for him as well. He’s someone who wants to see me do well. I’m sure he didn’t guess that 3-0 we’d win this series. But he’s been sharing with me the last couple of days about bowling, batting, making decisions under pressure.”
Aaron Finch: “Same as the other games, we just haven’t had the top order go on. Myself getting out in back to back wickets, exposing two new players towards the back end. It’s been quite similar the whole way through. Credit to West Indies, they bowled beautifully, towards the end there they denied us any length to get up and under that short side. They’re an experienced side and they showed it tonight. It’s not through lack of intent. It’s tough. International cricket is hard. We have to be better though. We can’t hide behind that, we’ve been below our best. Our bowling effort was pretty good, our effort in the field was good, our energy was up, but some days you come up against great players and they have a day out.”
This is interesting from Chris Gayle, with dashes of his own humility.It sounds like Pollard gave him a big rev-up before the game today.
“It’s a great journey, I’m so happy, so pleased to actually get a series win first of all. I want to congratulate the stand-in captain Nicholas Pooran on winning a great series against a great team. From a personal point of view, you all knew I was struggling with the bat, so to be able to get some runs today was very pleasing. What was actually pleasing about getting these runs was my teammates. I want to dedicate this milestone to my West Indies teammates, especially Kieron Pollard. We had a team meeting before the game and he stand tall, that’s what a leader should do. He stand tall, regardless of who the person I am, what I’ve achieved, you let me know where I stand within this team. You want me to go and express myself. So I’m very grateful for that pep talk. Sometimes it doesn’t matter how great you are, you need a little bit of talk sometimes. That coming from Kieron Pollard, from Dwayne Bravo who’s been a big supporter in the media, so I’ll comment that our senior guys played a fantastic part in what happened today. With this strength and unity within this team, we played some great all-round cricket, and I’m really happy to win this series.”
There’s the series won for West Indies in straight sets, with stand-in captain Nicholas Pooran in the middle at the end, and hitting the winning runs. They’ve been absolutely dominant since the second innings of the first match. Tonight was another well-rounded bowling performance, as we recapped earlier. Wade started fast but got out too early, as he did in the first match. Carey was lively for five minutes. No one else got much over a run a ball. Finch battled along through more than half the innings. Henriques and Turner did a professional job to get something from the innings, but could never break free.
Then for the reply, it was simply another Gayle match. He’s always been a player who might not come off, and in these his silver years those games are more frequent. But he does still have the capacity to dominate a match like few others, and when that happens there are few ways to stop it. It’s not about the first six from the over; it’s the second and the third and maybe the fourth, different deliveries disappearing in the same way, the seeming powerlessness of those up against him, that’s when bowlers really feel defeated.
14.5 overs: West Indies 142-4 (Pooran 32, Russell 7) Pooran defuses the hat-trick ball with a single, bringing Russell on strike. And of course Andre Russell belts his first ball for six. It’s a no-ball, too! He just belts it cross-batted off a length over long on. Because he can. Only gets a single off the free hit, but Pooran follows up with two boundaries, an extravagant lofted flick over fine leg and a pull shot in front of square, to seal the win.
Meredith rides the rollercoaster. On a hat-trick one minute; six, no-ball, wide, four, four, the next.
Quite the catch from Zampa. Not so much for quality but for comic effect. Not that it was easy, either. Bravo backs away and tries an uppercut, but it’s all top edge. Goes an absolute mile up. Zampa is coming across from inside the circle behind point, and running outside the circle tracking under that ball. As it comes down it nearly eludes him and he throws out an arm, kicks up one leg in a Cossack dance style, and somehow hangs on. For a minute it looks like he’s injured, but in fact he’s just lying on the ground giggling to himself in amusement that he took the catch.
13th over: West Indies 124-3 (Pooran 23, Bravo 7) We have a long and silly delay for replays to see whether Pooran’s shot clipped Starc’s fingers en route to the non-striker’s stumps. Silly because, after many replays, the third umpire finally looks at the side on view and finds that Bravo’s bat was grounded. Surely there could be a faster path to that obvious conclusion. Starc stands waiting at the top of his mark for minutes, he knows that it isn’t out. When he finally bowls, Pooran drives behind point for four.
12th over: West Indies 116-3 (Pooran 18, Bravo 4) Hazlewood back, Bravo out there, and he takes a couple of balls to settle, getting through an lbw shout for a ball striking too high on the pad, before playing an immaculate back-foot punch through cover for four.
Just 26 to win now.
11th over: West Indies 109-3 (Pooran 15) Nicholas Pooran has gone four overs without needing to score. He’s barely faced a ball. He adds a single here, just needs to feed Gayle the strike. Gayle, meanwhile, hit more sixes in one over than Australia hit in their innings. And he keeps going. Short from Meredith, Gayle again backs away just that tiny shuffle that gives him space, and heaves it leg side. Lots of top edge, but so much power that it lands on the roof of the grandstand. Next ball, full and six again. HUGE, that one! Over the back of the grandstand this time, picked up off the pads and going a mile up in the air.
And finally, from the last ball of the over, Meredith tries a slower bouncer outside the off stump, and Gayle gets a fat edge that skips through to Wade behind the stumps. That was 67 from 38 balls, with seven sixes.
11th over: West Indies 93-2 (Gayle 54, Pooran 13) Outside edge from Gayle. His charmed life continues. Doesn’t read Zampa’s googly, nicks it over the keeper and away for four. But Gayle reads the next one. Knows every micron. Belts the pull shot onto the hill for six. Australia’s substitute AJ Tye has to climb over there in the orange vest to fetch it.
The next six is even bigger. Zampa goes the googly again but it’s full, no time to turn. Gayle clears the front leg and hits straight, so long it hits the grandstand and bounces back onto the field.
10th over: West Indies 71-2 (Gayle 32, Pooran 13) Once again Gayle looks short of answers against Starc. Pokes at one and gets an outside edge to the keeper along the ground. Then survives a second DRS referral as Starc nails him in the ankle dead in front. Only problem is the ball isn’t swinging back enough, it’s going on straighter and just missing the leg stump. So that’s the second review gone for Australia, and an excellent decision from Umpire Wilson.
Starc goes to the bouncer next, unsurprisingly, then starts swinging it away outside off stump, making sure Gayle can’t go leg side. One wide, and a single guided to deep third - that’s it from the over.
9th over: West Indies 69-2 (Gayle 31, Pooran 13) First ball of the over goes for six once again. Zampa this time, just full enough and Gayle batters it over long on with a straight bat. Doesn’t keep strike though. Zampa has a good lbw appeal against Pooran but as with Starc, the ball is pitching just outside leg. Good decisions from the on-field umps. And like Marsh, a good comeback from Zampa: a single and a wide are the only scores to follow the six.
The six, meanwhile, raises 14,000 runs in all T20 matches for Gayle. With over a thousand sixes. Absurd numbers.
8th over: West Indies 61-2 (Gayle 24, Pooran 13) No time to waste before going after Mitch Marsh! Barely short, that ball, just about the knee roll, but the line is straight and Pooran gets himself low enough that he can come up from under the ball with his pick-up shot. High over square leg for six.
Marsh comes back well though, actually going shorter rather than pushing up, evading the bat or forcing it to hit to his field, conceding two runs from the next five balls.
7th over: West Indies 53-2 (Gayle 23, Pooran 6) Fielding restrictions off, and Zampa on, no spin earlier than this today with no Agar to deliver it. Turner does bowl spin but isn’t exactly like for like with Agar, his Western Australia teammate. Zampa bowls very flat to the left-handers and gets through the over for four singles.
6th over: West Indies 49-2 (Gayle 21, Pooran 4) So nearly two wickets in two balls for Meredith. Finch puts himself at slip, Meredith angles across Pooran and gets the edge, and it goes just wide of the catching position for four. Only leg byes and a wide from the rest of the over. Nicholas Pooran at No4, where Shimron Hetmyer batted in the previous two matches, while Pooran put himself down at No7 and didn’t bat last time out.
Pace does the job. That length ball again, uppercut by Simmons airborne and it carries all the way to deep backward point. Starc leaps up for some reason while taking the catch around chest height, but holds onto it.
5th over: West Indies 42-1 (Simmons 14, Gayle 21) Hazlewood isn’t having an easy time of it. Gayle doesn’t hurt him this over, but Simmons pulls out a helicopter cover drive - if you can’t picture it, imagine a lot of bottom-handed whip on the shot to send it over cover rather than through - that lands just inside the rope for four.
4th over: West Indies 34-1 (Simmons 9, Gayle 20) Meredith on to bowl, Finch wanting to challenge Gayle with pace and a flatter trajectory than Hazlewood’s. It works initially, three dots as Gayle misses, then blocks, then flat-bats to mid off. Meredith nails a yorker and Gayle just keeps it out of his boots, squeezing one run to deep square. Simmons plays a similar shot but gets more on it, with some momentum from stepping outside leg and being followed by Meredith, so his squeeze rolls for four. Then Simmons bosses the sixth ball, length from Meredith, back-cut savagely for four.
3rd over: West Indies 25-1 (Simmons 1, Gayle 19) Finch goes upstairs for a DRS adjudication on an lbw shout, but it was narrowly pitching outside leg stump from Starc, the classic left-armer’s problem with the right-hander. I thought it might have hit him just outside the line as well, and a bit high. Not much going for it, all things considered. Just the leg bye and one run from the over.
2nd over: West Indies 23-1 (Simmons 1, Gayle 18) Hazlewood will partner Starc. He was frugal in the first match, got targeted in the second... and Chris Gayle decides that Hazlewood has to go in the third. Shuffles back a touch and wallops him off a length, over long on for six! The classic Gayle baseball shot. Hazlewood goes more leg side, on the hip, and Gayle pulls him for four. Minimal apparent effort, just timing. Next ball, same again. There’s a sweeper out there now and it beats him anyway. Next ball, over long on for four more. That’s 18 in four balls. A lot of players struggle with Hazlewood’s length, but Gayle, a taller man, has decided that length just means the ball sits up nicely for him.
1st over: West Indies 4-1 (Simmons 0, Gayle 0) At the last World Cup we saw Gayle was definitely hurried up by Starc, didn’t seem to be able to read his pace. Starc isn’t bowling quite as quickly or fiercely right now but it’s still an interesting point, with two more years having elapsed for Gayle too. He makes no attempt to score from Starc here, defending twice and leaving once.
There’s the one they need. Something to start things off. Mitchell Starc gets his first wicket of the series. His second ball is fast on the hip and Fletcher flicks it over short fine for four, one bounce. But the next ball Fletcher tries to on-drive with a lot of power, and skews it off the inside half to midwicket rather than the gap between there and mid on. Marsh takes the catch, travelling fast but straight to him.
They’ll need seven an over. It’s not nothing, it’s a score that can be defended, but it’ll need fast wickets to put the pressure on.
West Indies bowled so well tonight. Two sixes in the innings, both from Henriques. And 11 fours. So 13 balls out of 120 that went to the boundary, that’s very low for this format. Only 41 runs from the last 30 deliveries with two reasonably set players in the middle, also significant.
20th over: Australia 141-6 (Christian 1) So Australia’s nominal finisher Dan Christian got to come out with three balls leftand got to face one, trying for a flip-pull for four but it was saved for one run. Which brought Turner back on strike for that final ball.
The innings ends with another piece of skill. Turner hits the ball hard and straight. Both Australians start running. But Bravo flings out a hand in his follow-through, seizes the ball on the bounce, and turns to sprint back to the non-striker’s end and beat Turner home.
Bravo finishing the innings by going around the wicket and angling into the pads of the right-handers, forcing them to hit to a longer leg side boundary with catchers patrolling. Henriques doesn’t have much choice but to attempt the task, and his shot falls short as Allen dives forward to claim it.
19th over: Australia 137-4 (Henriques 33, Turner 22) Cottrell into his fourth over, and he’s beating the bat as well! Henriques’ cut, Turner’s pull, both go under the ball. Henriques edges into the ground to the keeper. Throw in a couple of wides as he tries to hit the tram tracks outside off, and it’s still only four runs from five legal balls. But Russell overruns the final ball while charging in from long on, hoping to force a run out as the Australians try for a second, and that miss means they can run a comfortable third.
18th over: Australia 130-4 (Henriques 29, Turner 21) Pooran has held back one over from Hayden Walsh, and that was a good move. For three balls the Australians can’t do more than hit the sweepers for one. Fourth ball, missed stumping. Henriques charges, beaten by the bounce, over his blade outside the line of his body, but Pooran fumbles the take, snatching at it. So Henriques charges again, but mis-hits on the bounce to deep mid. Turner pulls two. Another economical over, and the wicket chance. Walsh ends with 2 for 18 from four overs, outstanding T20 returns.
17th over: Australia 124-4 (Henriques 27, Turner 17) Shot from Ashton Turner! He played a few of these in his crazy ODI run chase in India in 2019. First ball of Russell’s over, Turner predicts that it will be very wide of off stump. He walks way across, miles across, and flicks it over fine leg for four. Turner doesn’t play these like most players with the ramp or lap, in that he doesn’t crouch or get low. He stands up at his tall height and just manoeuvres the bat to scoop the ball as he moves across. On this occasion, he makes contact while standing at the edge of the cut strip, and ends up two pitches across with the momentum from his movement. Quite the dramatic shot. Henriques finishes the over in less flashy but more profitable style, thumping length from Russell over midwicket for six.
16th over: Australia 109-4 (Henriques 17, Turner 12) Both batsmen are trying to hit hard now, aiming plenty at the ball but not timing anything off this surface. Dragged along the ground, here and there. It’s only from the sixth ball of the over that something opens up. Bravo tries for the yorker and misses it, on the short side. Henriques smacks it into the sightscreen for six.
15th over: Australia 99-4 (Henriques 9, Turner 10) Cottrell keeps the restraints on, two runs in the first four balls of his over. Turner walks right across and tries to lap sweep, gets it well enough to get two runs with Gayle intercepting from short fine. Drives another two in front of point, hard running to get back. Still only seven from the over.
14th over: Australia 92-4 (Henriques 8, Turner 5) A slip in place for Turner against the leg-spinner, and Walsh does draw an edge as Turner plays a glide. I think Turner was happy to take that gamble, and he wins this time, bouncing past the slip and thus there’s no one in place to stop it reaching the boundary at deep third. Still just a couple of singles from the rest of the over. Time is ticking away.
13th over: Australia 86-4 (Henriques 7, Turner 0) Allen wraps up his bowling day with 1 for 26 from four, conceding five runs from this final over as Henriques flicks twos and a one.
12th over: Australia 81-4 (Henriques 2, Turner 0) Hayden Walsh has 2 for 6 from two overs, Australia have two new players at the crease with not much time left to drop the hammer.
WHAT A CATCH! It says caught Allen but that was at least half Bravo. Not the boundary-line flick-back relay, either. Finch decides that Walsh has to go. Aims a huge drive that goes so high that midwicket and long on have time to converge under the ball. It’s coming down with snow on it, and Bravo can’t quite read it in the lights. He has his hands at chest height, fingers down, and the ball bounces off his hands and into his chest, and away. He sees it falling and slaps it up with his palm. Allen is going past, and turns back in a split second to dive towards the ball. Takes it in mid air on the rebound! Remarkable work.
Again the player striking well has to exit. Walsh gives this leg-break a lot of loop, floating it up full, and it dips on Carey at the last minute. I think he’s attempting to loft his cover drive rather than keep it down, but in the end he’s halfway in between. Hits it at catching height, and there’s only one fielder anywhere near it, standing in the circle at cover, but it goes straight to Lendl Simmons.
11th over: Australia 79-2 (Finch 30, Carey 13) Finch has been out there all night and hit two boundaries. Carey hits his second off his 11th ball, backing away and driving Fabian Allen out through cover. A few singles follow.
10th over: Australia 72-2 (Finch 29, Carey 7) Pooran wants another spin option so he turns to the casual off-spin of Chris Gayle. Finch tries to up that rate with a powerful sweep, but Walsh at backward point makes the save. He does find the boundary with a straight hit over Gayle from a fuller ball, but mistimes a sweep and gets a gloved single that bounces off his body and past the keeper.
9th over: Australia 63-2 (Finch 22, Carey 5) Marsh falls from the third ball of the over. Alex Carey reverse-sweeps the fourth ball for four.He loves that shot early, often used it opening the batting in the UAE in 2018 against spinners like Imad Wasim. Has a tendency to make things happen with the bat, and Australia badly need a scoring boost from here. Barely six an over, and Finch is going at less than a run a ball.
That’s as plumb as you get. Marsh takes a small shuffle across his stumps, drops to one knee and tries to sweep. Allen lands it on leg stump and straightens it to hit in front of middle. Marsh doesn’t even talk about referring, he just walks off.
8th over: Australia 56-1 (Finch 21, Marsh 8) Hayden Walsh will bowl his leg-breaks from the other end, and he keeps dragging short, but the Australians don’t punish him, pulling to the deep for singles. Bowl those to Russell in the 17th over and they would be going into the street. This over should not have been allowed to cost four runs in total. Is this Australian side feeling timid after the weekend?
7th over: Australia 52-1 (Finch 19, Marsh 6) Fabian Allen will bowl the first spin of the night, left-arm orthodox around the wicket to the two right-handers. They don’t try anything expansive, picking off singles until the sixth ball as Marsh forces through cover for four. Good shot, cover is up in the circle and that was too powerful to stop, hit just straight of that man. The sweeper is squarer, this shot goes more towards extra cover.
6th over: Australia 45-1 (Finch 17, Marsh 1) The Wade Conundrum strikes again. Mitchell Marsh comes out, he’s been Australia’s best (only?) with the bat in the first two games. Bravo is bowling vey medium pace. Pooran goes upstairs for a DRS review after Marsh misses a flick down the leg side, but ah, it turns out Marsh missed a flick down the leg side. Takes a couple of balls to get off the mark with a pull. The wicket has immediately slowed the scoring.
5th over: Australia 41-1 (Finch 15) There we have it. Obed McCoy bowls his first, mixing up his pace with various slower balls and cutters. Gives up a boundary to Finch, uppercut over backward point. McCoy is annoyed when his sixth delivery slips past Wade’s pads. But the wide gives him a chance to bowl another ball, and this one brings him joy. Around the wicket, angled in at the left-hander. Wade backs away to make room, pre-empting it, and misses his drive. McCoy runs his fingers down the side of the ball on release, affecting the pace, and it hits off stump.
4th over: Australia 32-0 (Wade 21, Finch 9) Another couple of miscues from Finch before he finally gets a pull away, two runs as Fabian Allen puts in a big slide and a clean pick-up at deep backward square. A couple of wides in the over help reduce the dot-ball pressure on Finch, who eventually gets off strike. Wade misses a big drive outside off, then sprints through a tight single to keep strike. Dives in at the non-striker’s end, and it needs to be timed just right to beat Gayle’s direct hit from midwicket. Home by a fraction.
3rd over: Australia 26-0 (Wade 20, Finch 6) Wade backs away to make room, drives through extra cover for four! On the carpet again and hits the gap in the infield. This is Wade’s knack early in an innings, he strikes so well from ball one and he places the ball. He just has a tendency to get out for middling scores despite looking a million bucks. Finch is progressing more slowly, unable to beat the field on a number of occasions before Cottrell hits him in the stomach as Finch tries to pull.
2nd over: Australia 18-0 (Wade 15, Finch 3) Andre Russell has been the MVP for West Indies so far, contributing with bat and ball across both matches. He gets an early go with the ball here, drops short, and Wade absolutely smokes it. Fletcher is out at deep square leg to protect the short ball. Wade only hits this one a few metres to his left. Flat along the grass. But it’s hit so well that it scorches past Fletcher before he can even get down to ground level and attempt to save.
1st over: Australia 10-0 (Wade 9, Finch 1) And we’re away. Matthew Wade facing the first ball... and driving it for four! Through cover point. He looked so good in the first match, everything flew off the bat until he got out and the rest of his team fell away, then he edged one after a couple of balls in the second match. Here, he follows up his first foray with a pull from Cottrell through fine leg for four, more glove than bat perhaps, and it doesn’t land far from short fine but Wade gets away with it and profits. Two singles follow.
Both teams take the knee briefly before the start of play, 13 players in the middle and the rest along the boundary line.
Australia
Aaron Finch *
Matthew Wade +
Mitchell Marsh
Moises Henriques
Alex Carey
Ashton Turner
Daniel Christian
Mitchell Starc
Adam Zampa
Riley Meredith
Josh Hazlewood
Top four is the same. Carey comes in for Philippe, McDermott for Turner, Meredith for Agar. As with the previous XI, this means four straight out bowlers with a range of all-round options to cobble together the other four overs. Zampa batting at 9 is very high though, and it’s not like Australia haven’t needed the lower order lately...
Sometimes when you’re playing badly you may not want to win the toss, because it gives an illusion of control over the result, and shows that your intended strategy didn’t work. Finch has won all three tosses. Chose to chase twice on the weekend and that failed, so today he opts to bat first.
Hello again. This is the third T20 International out of five in this series – meaning that West Indies can wrap up a series win if they take the match today, and Australia have to win to stay in it. From the visitors’ perspective, it was a tough opening weekend. They started by bowling brilliantly, but with enough fielding lapses to let West Indies keep a foothold in the game, then Australia were cruising in reply before a collapse of a drastic order. Teams don’t usually play games on back to back days anymore, and when Australia turned up for the second outing they got walloped in all three disciplines. Bowled out in both matches for unimpressive scores, they have much work to do.
West Indies will be feeling great. Kieron Pollard has been absent with a hamstring twinge, meaning that Nicholas Pooran has been temporary captain, but he’s won two from two. The comeback in the first match had him elated, but the second performance was clinical, including much of the big hitting for which West Indies T20 cricket has been known in recent years that include two T20 World Cup wins.
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