Australia complete perfect 8-0 sweep on the dominant West Indies tour

Business Standard

6 days ago

Australia completed a sweep of the Twenty20 international cricket series with a three-wicket victory over West Indies to finish its Caribbean tour with an 8-0 record.
Australia went into the last game on a 7-match winning streak following the 3-0 test series sweep and victories in the first four of the T20 internationals.
After winning the toss for the eighth straight time, Australia sent the home team in to bat and dismissed West Indies for 170 two balls short of the allotted 20 overs on Monday night.
Shimron Hetmyer's 52 from 31 balls and Sherfane Rutherford's 35 off 17 propped up the innings but the target wasn't big enough to put genuine pressure on the Australian batters.
Ben Dharshuis took 3-41 and Nathan Ellis finished with 2-32, while spinner Adam Zampa returned 1-20 in his 100th T20 international after taking a wicket and having a chance dropped off his bowling in the penultimate over.
The Australians reached 173-7 with 18 balls to spare, with a 63-run fifth-wicket partnership between Mitchell Owen (37 off 17 deliveries) and Cameron Green (32 off 18) stabilizing the innings.
Aaron Hardie finished not out on 28.
West Indies had Australia in trouble in the opening powerplay with Jason Holder and Alzarri Joseph taking two wickets apiece, but the runs kept flowing.
Holder dismissed Glenn Maxwell for a golden duck, the first ball of the second over, when the Australian allrounder swung at a ball that shaped away and edged to short third-man where Jediah Blades juggled the catch but held the second grab.
Holder also removed Josh Inglis (10) at the end of the second over.
Joseph bowled Mitch Marsh (14) as Australia slipped to 29-3 after 2.2 overs and, after on onslaught of sixes, he had Tim David (30 from 12 balls) caught in the deep as Australia slipped to 60-4 in the fifth over.
From there, Owen and Green dominated with a succession of sixes, including one by Owen that landed on the roof on a pavilion.
Left-arm spinner Akeal Hosein was finally introduced to the attack to change the pace, and had an immediate impact with his second delivery to dismiss Owen and break up the important partnership.
Hosein also dismissed Green and Ben Dwarshuis to return 3-17.