FORMER West Indies and Trinidad and Tobago fast bowler Tony Gray was delighted with the aggression shown by the West Indies in their 35-run victory over a weakened Australian team in their final T20 World Cup warm-up match at Queen’s Park Oval in Port of Spain on May 30.
It was a high-scoring affair which saw over 470 runs on the board from both sides, to go along with 31 sixes.
Similar to their previous warm-up match against Namibia, the Aussies only had nine of their World Cup squad players available, with Brad Hodge, chairman of selectors George Bailey and fielding coach Andre Borovec all taking fielding duty at some point during the contest.
Ironically, Borovec had an amusing moment during the Windies’ 257-run onslaught, as he dropped a swashbuckling Pooran during the eighth over of the regional team’s innings.
Gray said there were several standout performances from the game which augur well for the hosts, who begin their official campaign against Papua New Guinea on June 2.
Gray lauded Pooran’s electrifying knock of 75 runs from 25 balls, which included several stunning strikes. He also praised opener Johnson Charles’ (40) supporting role, skipper Rovman Powell (52), Sherfane Rutherford’s (47 not out) and the frugal Guyanese spinner Gudakesh Motie (2/31).
“It’s very good people understand their role by now,” Gray said on May 31.
“The way Pooran scored his runs was savage. Johnson Charles played a sensible role when Pooran was going guns blazing, because he was there to roll the ball around, and that’s the kind of cricket we want to see.
“I like the captain settling down after playing across the line of the ball after his first delivery, which was not in keeping with what was required on a surface like that. But he settled down nicely and batted some good overs.
“To me, Rutherford was also impressive, not only by scoring quickly but finishing unbeaten, it sets a psychological trend that he has to go after the runs smartly at that stage of the game.”
[caption id="attachment_1087030" align="alignnone" width="951"] WI batsman Nicholas Pooran in action against Australia in a World Cup warm-up match on May 30 at the Queen’s Park Oval, Port of Spain. - Photo courtesy CWI[/caption]
Pooran, the former Windies skipper, was in a no-nonsense mood, and his first two scoring shots were disdainful hits for six off Ashton Agar (one for 58) and Nathan Ellis respectively. Pooran treated the healthy Oval crowd to a belligerent cameo, with five fours and eight massive sixes.
Pooran raced to his fifty off just 16 balls after hitting leg-spinner Adam Zampa for a pair of sixes in the seventh over.
The Windies hit 18 sixes in their innings in total, with opener Johnson Charles (40 off 31 balls) and skipper Rovman Powell (52 off 25 balls) also getting in on the act with some powerful hitting. Charles shared in a 90-run partnership for the second wicket with Pooran, but he lost momentum in his innings before his eventual dismissal in the 13th over.
Though Pooran was the headline act, Powell also flexed his
