West Indies have less than 70 hours to dust themselves off following their five-nil defeat to Australia but skipper Shai Hope insists there are positives they can take into their three-match T20 series against Pakistan in Florida.
West Indies are back in action just three days after being swept for the second straight T20 series at home, after losing all three matches to Bangladesh last December, and they’ll be desperately searching for their first win of the home season having been beaten in all three Tests against Australia.
Like the Test series, where the Windies were level with Australia across the first innings of each match before falling away in the second innings, Hope’s side also matched the tourists in the Powerplay throughout the T20 series before the tourists took control.
Australia have overtaken West Indies as the biggest hitting team in the T20 format with Marsh’s side out-hitting the hosts’ 64 sixes to 53 across the five matches, setting a new record for an Aussie team in a bilateral campaign.
They also struck at 193 runs per 100 balls faced for the series, 27 runs quicker than West Indies’ strike rate of 166, with Australia the fastest scoring team in T20 internationals since the start of last year.
The 5-0 result was Australia’s first ever in a five-match T20 series and also their third series sweep in their past four bilateral contests after beating both Scotland and Pakistan 3-0 last year.
It lifted their record to 12 wins from 13 matches since the last T20 World Cup – the form side of the 15 top-ranked teams with a winning percentage of 92.3 – as each nation builds towards the showpiece tournament’s next edition in India and Sri Lanka beginning in February.
“We played some really good cricket across the board, I probably didn’t expect to win five-nil – (the) West Indies we’ve got a lot of respect for,” Aussie captain Marsh told cricket.com.au following the series finale in St Kitts.
“(In) T20 cricket there’s always those pressure points and in those moments this series we had a range of guys that were really calm under pressure and executed really well.
“We were really well prepared coming into this, we know how much power they’ve got, they are a really good side, but under pressure we had some really good moments.”
Hope believes his side has still got what it takes to compete with the best teams in the world but their lack of consistency within a match was “putting them behind the eight ball”.
West Indies were able to put Australia under pressure during the first six overs of the innings across the five matches, taking 12 wickets to the visitors’ seven while also sending down a greater percentage of dot balls (47.8) than their opponents (43.3).
Their batters also scored more than 100 runs in the first 10 overs in three of the five games, but it was their inability to keep the pressure on for the entire 20 overs that was their biggest downfall.
The Windies bowlers were unable to contain Australia’s powerful batting line-up during the middle overs (7-15) with the Aussies’ strike rate during that period (211.7) more than 40 runs better per 100 balls faced than the home side (170.6).
West Indies’ batting also fell away at the death (overs 16-20), losing 15 wickets to Australia’s four, as the hosts also bowled fewer than half the amount of death overs due to the speed at which the tourists batted in the middle period of the innings, chasing down their targets in the second T20 in the 16th over and 17th over in the third and fifth matches respectively.
“We pride ourselves on being a very strong team and we certainly can compete with the best in the world, we’ve shown that,” Hope said following their three-wicket defeat in the fifth T20.
“But if we’re not putting games together or passages of play together more consistently, then we’ll always find ourselves behind the eight ball.
“We either started well and then faltered in the back end, or vice versa.
“When you’re playing against a quality opposition like Australia, you’ve got to make sure you put your better games together.
“I thought they executed really well, especially with the ball.
“You can see the clarity and plans that they would have had, and every single time they bowled in a certain situation of the game, you can see what they’re trying to do, and their bowlers just executed a lot better.
“And the batters, they were always hitting that aggressive button, they were always coming at us and never allowed us to settle as a bowling group.
“Even though we got some wickets in the Powerplay in most of the games, they just kept the foot on the gas and it’s difficult to stop them, especially when you’re playing on such a small ground and good surface like in St Kitts at Warner Park.”
But having blooded young left-armer Jediah Blades, who took three wickets in the fourth T20, and pushed Australia all the way in the final two games by taking seven wickets in both matches, Hope believes they have something to build from when they face Pakistan at Lauderhill in Miami in three T20 matches from Thursday (Friday morning AEST).
“There’s still positives to take from it, the bowlers fought, especially in the last two games,” he said.
“Sometimes you don’t always get it right, but you have to take some of the learnings from the last two games.
“If I had all the answers, then we’d be winning all the time.
“It’s important for us to learn from the little mistakes that we’ve been making continuously.”
Qantas Tour of the West Indies
First T20I: Australia won by three wickets
Second T20I: Australia won by eight wickets
Third T20I: Australia won by six wickets
Fourth T20I: Australia won by three wickets
Fifth T20I: Australia won by three wickets
West Indies T20 squad: Shai Hope (c), Jewel Andrew, Jediah Blades, Roston Chase, Matthew Forde (St Kitts only), Shimron Hetmyer, Jason Holder, Akeal Hosein, Alzarri Joseph, Brandon King, Evin Lewis, Gudakesh Motie, Rovman Powell, Andre Russell (Kingston only), Sherfane Rutherford, Romario Shepherd
Australia’s T20 squad: Mitchell Marsh (c), Sean Abbott, Xavier Bartlett, Cooper Connolly, Tim David, Ben Dwarshius, Nathan Ellis, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Cameron Green, Aaron Hardie, Josh Inglis, Matt Kuhnemann, Glenn Maxwell, Mitch Owen, Adam Zampa
