West Indies will host Australia in the second game of the 5-match T20I series. West Indian bowlers did wonder in St Lucia by pulling off a comeback and they have taken a 1-0 lead in the series.
Match Timings: July 11, 5 AM IST
Team Preview
Australia will face West Indies in the second T20I after a disappointing collapse in the first game. We have rarely seen Australia collapsing like this when they need less than 4 runs per over while chasing and they had wickets in hand. West Indies started the series in a fascinating way and credit goes to their bowlers. After conceding 70 odd runs in powerplay, hosts bowled very well in middle-overs.
West Indies’ batting looked pretty bad and they couldn’t even rotate the strike when Hazlewood was bowling. Australian pacer conceded only 12 in his spell and 6 came off his final ball of the spell. Andre Russell smashed a 26-ball fifty when West Indies were even struggling to touch the run-rate of 6. His late fire helped West Indies to get 145. Meanwhile, Mitchell Marsh also scored his maiden T20I fifty, following 17-ball 33 from Wade. Australia were three down on 108 in the 11th over and they required just 38 in the next 9 overs but they collapsed badly to dismiss on 127. McCoy bagged 4 wickets for West Indies and his spell finishing the game for the hosts.
St Lucia’s surface will give a more dramatic finish in this series and later, it will be a spin-friendly surface. Australia has to look back at their flaws as they were on driver's seat throughout the game but mistakes of half an hour gave an easy win to West Indies. Bowling has been really good and they kept West Indies silent. The batting unit need to understand their role. When the run rate was under control, they just need to rotate the strike but they created unwanted mistakes.
West Indies will be boosted after this win but they were not a top side on Friday night. They batted poorly from the start and it was Russell who took charge in death-overs. The Bowling unit in powerplay was pathetic and conceded 70 runs. Some silly errors from Australian batting cannot stop counting the mistakes. They also won the opening game against South Africa but later, failed to captilise it. Australia will surely bounce back in the series and we might expect a win from visitors in the second game.
Pitch Report
St Lucia’s surface is good for batting but it will test the batsmen due to its sluggish behavior. We saw bowling unit troubled batsmen in the first game. We might expect chasing sides to dominate the game but it will be tricky if the score is around 160.
Squads
West Indies
Lendl Simmons, Evin Lewis, Chris Gayle, Shimron Hetmyer, Nicholas Pooran (c & wk), Andre Russell, Dwayne Bravo, Fabian Allen, Hayden Walsh, Obed McCoy, Fidel Edwards
Australia
Aaron Finch (c), Matthew Wade (wk), Mitchell Marsh, Josh Philippe, Moises Henriques, Ben McDermott, Daniel Christian, Ashton Agar, Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood
Key Players
Australia
Adam Zampa
Will be handy on this spin surface
Aaron Finch
Having a good form with the bat
West Indies
Evin Lewis
A hard-hitting player in opening slot, looked good in SA series
Dwayne Bravo
Looked wonderful with the bowl in last series and his impact will be crucial
