West Indies while playing at home during their favourite format made the most out of it as they beat Australia by 4 games to 1 and it was more than safe to say that they were carrying the momentum with them in the ODI series ahead.
Australia on the other hand, supposed to play against a side they lost to by a huge margin and playing without most of their star players with a new captain would find it difficult to say nonetheless.
Big names like David Warner, Aron Finch and Steve Smith were all missing and it was Alex Carey, the 29 year old who had the responsibility of captaining this inexperienced side.
Australia started cautiously after winning the toss by scoring 5 runs per over in the powerplay before losing Josh Philippe in the 11th over. With no one sticking around for long, soon Australia found themselves struggling at 114-4. But it were the runs from the skipper Alex Carey and Ashton Turner which stabilized the Australian inning and took their total to 252-9 which was a decent total considering the heap of wickets that fell quickly.
Chasing a total of 257 due to DLS in the second inning, the fast bowling duo of Starc and Hazlewood reduced the West Indies batting line up at a mere 27-6. Kieron Pollard and Alzari Joseph stitched a few runs together but runs only enough to make sure the innings don’t bundle out for a score of below 100. Pollard on one hand, took charge against Zampa by scoring big against him. He ended up at 56(57) and soon the Aussie bowlers wrapped things up and won the game by a massive 133 runs. Starc was the pick of the bowlers with 5 wickets to his name.
Image Courtesy: ICC
Australia had a lot of positives to take away from the game. Starc and Hazlewood's return to form will instill confidence among their fans and with Finch coming back in the next ODI, Australia would like to make a statement by winning the ODI series. This series is a good opportunity for the new players to make a case for themselves ahead of the ODI World Cup 2 years down the line.
As far as West Indies are concerned, their ODI squad isn’t performing half of what it did in the T20 series and it won’t be wrong to say that the team needs a lot of introspection and self analysis as they look to make a comeback in the second ODI to be played on the 23rd of July with the series on the line.
