The West Indies have stayed in the race for a semi-final berth at the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup with an impressive nine-wicket victory over USA in Barbados on Friday.
Roston Chase (3/19) and Andre Russell (3/31) were in good touch with the ball as the USA were dismissed for just 128 and an unbeaten 82 from Shai Hope ensured the victory target was achieved within 11 overs at Kensington Oval.
The triumph was the West Indies first of the Super Eights phase of the tournament and leaves them in contention for a place in the final four should they be able to defeat South Africa in their last game of the stage.
It leaves USA without a win from two Super Eight contests and means the tournament co-hosts will need everything to go their way in their match against England on Sunday if they are to sneak into the semi-final spots.
USA’s innings never reached great heights after they were sent into bat first by West Indies captain Rovman Powell.
Andries Gous top-scored for the USA with 29, while Nitish Kumar (20), Milind Kumar (19) and Shadley van Schalkwyk (18) also chimed in as the West Indies took wickets at regular intervals to stay in control of the contest.
Hope was in devastating touch with the bat as he cleared the rope on eight occasions to help guide West Indies home and give them a valuable boost to their net run rate ahead of a cut-throat clash with South Africa on Sunday.
USA made two changes to their XI, with Milind Kumar and van Schalkwyk included in their team to replace Shayan Jahangir and Jessy Singh.
The West Indies also made two changes – one of them forced – with Hope replacing the injured Brandon King and Obed McCoy coming in for Romario Shepherd.
USA: Steven Taylor, Andries Gous (wk), Nitish Kumar, Aaron Jones (c), Corey Anderson, Milind Kumar, Harmeet Singh, Shadley van Schalkwyk, Nosthush Kenjige, Ali Khan, Saurabh Netravalkar.
West Indies: Johnson Charles, Shai Hope, Nicholas Pooran (wk), Roston Chase, Rovman Powell (c), Sherfane Rutherford, Andre Russell, Akeal Hosein, Alzarri Joseph, Gudakesh Motie, Obed McCoy.
SOURCE: ICC-cricket.com/SLT
USA is trying to come after everything and buy out alot of players. Since they refer to bowling as pitching and bowling is another popular activity, I am looking forward to the day they rename “Americanise” cricket like how they did football.
Impressing against USA is nothing to be proud about. Just like Julien Alfred winning gold against lesser individuals by running 9.70 seconds, and when Americans like Shakira and top level Jamaicans are in the mix, she runs 9.93 seconds to place second.
Yes that seems to be the case. She runs like she is scared of people like Sha’carrie and the big name Jamaicans. and when she gets lesser people, she can right 10.70 to win gold. While with serious contenders, she runs 10.93
We need to be careful with the united states they are capable of giving Daren Sammy 20 million USD to coach a national side and even create a league bigger than the IPL. cricket has become a billion dollar industry….
Rally round the waste indies.