West Indies served a warning to the rest of the teams with a thundering 257 runs against Australia on Friday, 31 May in Trinidad, during a T20 World Cup 2024 warm-up game. Guided by Nicholas Pooran’s sensational 75 off just 25 balls, West Indies reached a massive total against Mitchell Marsh’s team. Australia once again fielded only 9 players from their main team due to the unavailability of their full squad, but were taken apart in their second warm-up game.
Apart from Pooran, captain Rovman Powell hit 52 off 25 balls, while Sherfane Rutherford completed the destruction in the back end with 47 off just 18. West Indies would be happy with their outing given they were not part of the previous edition of the tournament. Windies had failed to qualify for the main round in the previous World Cup in Australia, which was a low for the country’s cricket board. 2022 was the first time that the T20 World Cup was played without West Indies, however, the team qualified for this edition of the tournament due to their rights as the co-host.
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However, the side seems to have clicked this season, with their batting at least. Windies only lost 4 wickets in the game and reached a tremendous total against the likes of Josh Hazlewood, Adam Zampa, Nathan Ellis and Ashton Agar. While Australia did not have the services of Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc, Windies were able to hand a proper hammering to Hazlewood (0/55) and Zampa (2/62) from their four overs respectively.
T20 World Cup 2024: West Indies Squad
Windies would be happy with the six-hitting spree of Nicholas Pooran, who smashed 8 of them on the day. Pooran was in stunning form with LSG in the Indian Premier League 2024 season. The left-hander had smashed 499 runs as a finisher with an astonishing strike-rate of 178. In the IPL 2024, Pooran’s highest individual score was 75 as well.
Source Agencies
