On Saturday, June 22, at Kensington Oval in Barbados, the West Indies defeated the USA by a comfortable margin of nine wickets in a pivotal Super Eight match in the T20 World Cup 2024.
The USA was asked to bat first after Rovman Powell won the toss. When Andre Russell defeated Steven Taylor in the match’s second over, the West Indies took the lead early on. Andries Gous carried over from his performance against South Africa in the previous match, launching numerous boundaries and combining with Nitish Kumar for 48 runs off of just 32 balls.
But this was only the start of the end for the USA, as both players left the game in successive overs. Aaron Jones, Corey, Anderson, and Harmeet Singh were all major wickets taken by Roston Chase during his outstanding middle-overs stint. The off-spinner achieved a career-best 3/19 stats in T20Is. With their bats, Shadley van Schalkwyk and Milind Kumar put on a performance that enabled their team to surpass the 100-run milestone. Just before the USA were bowled out for 128 in 19.5 overs, Ali Khan hit a couple of boundaries. Russell hit a three-for, just like Chase.
Shai Hope knocks with such vigour that she lights up Kensington Oval.
With an outstanding batting showing, Shai Hope, who replaced the injured Brandon King in the starting lineup, mesmerised the spectators. He launched an offensive against the USA bowlers right away, scoring 51 of the 67 runs he shared with Johnson Charles before the latter was bowled out for 15 balls on 14 balls.
With nine wickets and 55 balls remaining, the two-time winners were victorious after Charles was removed by Harmeet in the seventh over. Nicholas Pooran teamed up with Hope, and the seasoned players recorded an undefeated partnership of 63 runs off just 23 balls. Hope scored 82 runs off of just 39 balls without giving up, smashing eight sixes and four fours. Pooran, meanwhile, reached his score of 27 from 12 balls without losing, hitting one four and three sixes.
Also read: The ICC has approved Kyle Mayers to replace the injured Brandon King in the T20 World Cup 2024
Losing skipper Aaron Jones said:
I think maybe, we probably needed a score around 175-180 and we obviously finished under par. In the middle we lost wickets in clusters. That’s very important in T20 cricket and we never recovered from that. Obviously we tried to take a few quick wickets in the powerplay. England will be a good challenge and we are up for it.
Winning skipper Rovman Powell said:
It’s very special. Kensington brings very special memories for us. [On the bowling performance] I think [Chase] plays a critical role for us. He comes and tightens things. Credit has to be given to the boys, we set out to achieve our goals and we did. [On Hope] He’s been fantastic. He got an opportunity and was dropped due to combination but came back and performed. Shows the strength of the team.
POTM Roston Chase said:
[On his career-best figures] To do it at home is a great feeling, with my parents and my friends watching. It’s something we talked about in the team meeting that if we don’t get too many wickets in the powerplay, it’s on the spinners to come back and pull the game back and that’s what we did today. [On his catch to dismiss Steven Taylor] I love fielding at point, it gets me going.
This is my favourite place to play cricket. I’m from Barbados so I grew up playing cricket here. [On the SA match] It’s our destiny and our goal to win the World Cup so anyone we play we have to beat from here to go win it
India
