Aus vs WI, 1st T20I, 2022-23: Close shave for Aus as they win by 3 wickets; WI put up good fight
Australia vs West Indies, 1st T20I, Top Performances: Josh Hazlewood's 3-35, Pat Cummins 2-22, Aaron Finch's 58 and Alzarri Joseph's 2-16 are top performances. Australia beat West Indies by three wickets, lead series 1-0.
Brief Scores: West Indies 145/9 (Mayers 39, Smith 27, Hazlewood 3/35, Cummins 2/22) lost to Australia 146/7 (Finch 58, Wade 39*, Joseph 2/17, Cariah 1/15) by 3 wickets
Player of the Match: Aaron Finch – 58 (53)
The first game of the two-match T20I series between Australia and West Indies was played on Wednesday, October 5, at Carrara Oval in Queensland. While Australia entered this series after a 1-2 loss to India but things might change for Australia this time as this is the final dress rehearsal before ICC World T20 2022 and they are looking forward to playing with their final combination.
Despite the absence of a few key players, Australia emerged from the series against India with numerous positives. Moreover, Australia’s batters will look to replicate their performance from the previous matches in this series.
Talking about the first T20I against West Indies, initially, one thought it was going to be a low-scoring match but eventually, somehow West Indies managed to score 145 runs in their 20 overs thanks to Odean Smith’s quickfire 27 off just 17 deliveries.
In a frenetic final over, Australia needed 11 runs off the final over to be bowled by Sheldon Cottrell. Matthew Wade swung the first ball for four, but West Indies had a chance when Raymon Reifer dropped him at deep cover on the very next delivery. Mitchell Starc was also dropped two deliveries later before sprinting back for the winning runs off the penultimate delivery and nearly colliding with wicketkeeper Johnson Charles.
However, Australia managed to chase down the target in 19.5 overs with 3 wickets in hand, registering a hard-fought win. Aaron Finch (58) and Matthew Wade (39) were the stars of the show for Australia in the second innings.
Being a low-scoring match, there were quite a few useful performances from both sides and here we will discuss some of those.
Let’s scan the top three performances from the 1st T20I between West Indies and Australia.
