Australia knocked out the West Indies for 123 runs on Tuesday, winning the opening ODI by 133 runs. Mitchell Starc grabbed 5 wickets for 48 runs and Josh Hazlewood 3-11. Let’s look at AUS vs WI 1st ODI Winner.
AUS vs WI 1st ODI Winner
In a rain-affected game, the West Indies batting was in trouble at 27-6 in the 8th over, and they were ultimately all out there in the 27th over following a modified target of 257 in 49 overs.
Kieron Pollard, who made 56 and put up 68 for the 7th wicket with Alzarri Joseph, enabled the home team to avoid the lowest recorded total (17).
Alex Carey had previously struck a fifty in a 104-run 5th combination with Ashton Turner to help Australia to 252-9 in 49 overs. For the very first time in a one-day international, Carey took up the captaincy replacing Aaron Finch, who was ruled out due to a knee injury.
We’ve worked long and hard enough: Pollard
Hayden Walsh Jr. collected 5-39, his first five-wicket haul in ODI, and came close to a hat trick to keep Australia’s score in check. However, the West Indies top order collapsed in the presence of effective bowling from Starc as well as Hazlewood, giving Australia a comfortable victory.
“My biggest thing (in batting) is that I want the guys to fight, not just give it away because the ball is swinging or moving. I don’t like soft dismissals. We’ve worked long and hard enough. I think the most disappointing factor for me is we didn’t show that sort of fight”, said Pollard.
‘I thought we did a fantastic job with the bat to get 250’: Starc
Mitchell Starc, caught Evin Lewis off guard with the opening delivery of the innings, bowling him with a split on leg stump that stuck and Lewis sidestepped to the bowler on his run-up. Jason Mohammed was next bowled by Starc with a superb in-swinger over the batsman, which dipped back that sent off stumps spinning.
Shimron Hetmeyer (11) was bowled by Hazlewood, who seized the ball one-handed with his right arm extending after returning a top edge. In the sixth over, Nicolas Pooran (0) was bowled lbw by Starc on the line between middle and leg.
After Dwayne Bravo went to Hazlewood in the 6th over, the West Indies were 23-5, and Hazlewood had 3-wickets for three runs when he removed Jason Holder 2- overs later.
“It was a special day, we had three debutants and a guy captaining Australia for the first time. I thought we did a fantastic job with the bat to get to 250 with a couple of really good partnerships”, said, Starc.
Australia got off to a good start with openers Josh Philippe and Ben McDermott, who were both making their debuts, putting up 51 for the first wicket. In between 30th until 37th overs, Carey with Turner effectively defended the middle overs, yielding only 23 runs and no boundaries. As Wes Agar, who was making his debut, was caught off a wide in the last over, Walsh achieved his first five-wicket haul.
The sides will face the 2nd ODI on Thursday and the final on Saturday, respectively. The last T20 series was won by the West Indies 4-1.
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