#BTColumn – Aussie T20 series takeaways: Few positives; many negatives!

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the author(s) do not represent the official position of Barbados TODAY.

By Tony McWatt

2-0 in favour of the hosts. That was the score line of the recently concluded Australia-hosted T20I Series against the West Indies as a prelude to the Caribbean team’s participation in this year’s 2022 ICC T20 World Cup Final Qualification Tournament. Even more significantly it left West Indies with an entirely unflattering overall record of 7 wins, 16 losses and 2 no results from its T20I matches played since last year’s World Cup. Not exactly the type of record that would create any real sense of confidence heading into as big a tournament as the World Cup!

Not surprisingly and as a direct reflection of the 0-2 loss score line there were very few positives to be discerned as takeaways from the West Indies’ performance during the series. By contrast, there were also far too many easily identifiable negatives!

Of the very few readily identifiable positives, by far the biggest would have to be the continuing emergence of Alzarri Joseph as a world-class fast bowler. Joseph had overall returns of 5/38-8 at the end of the two-match Series. Both his average (7.60) and economy rate 4.75 were the very best among all those who bowled at least five overs for either of the two teams. His series tally of five wickets was also second only to Australia’s Mitchell Starc who claimed six victims. As indicated, however, Starc’s 10.0 average and 7.50 economy rate were both much inferior to Joseph’s.

What was even more impressive about Joseph during the series was the pace and control with which he bowled his deliveries. He always seemed fully capable of taking a wicket. Furthermore, the regularity with which he did so at crucial points of most matches should now serve as a reassuring confidence booster for both the West Indies captain Nicholas Pooran, as well as the team overall.

The West Indies’ highly commendable bowling performances in both matches was another of the series’ positive takeaways. Were it not for Messrs. Raymon Reifer and Kyle Mayers having both dropped sitters of catches in the final over of the first match, the West Indies could and should have won that encounter. Chasing the West Indies posted total of 145/9-20, Australia needed as many as 11 heading into the final over of their allocation. The missed chances by first Reifer, followed two balls later by that of Mayers, however, allowed the Aussies to scrape home by three wickets with just one ball to spare.

The West Indies bowling fared just as well in the second T20I. Spearheaded by Joseph’s 3/21-4 they made a highly commendable effort of restricting Australia’s very strong batting lineup to a gettable twenty-overs total of 178/7-20. That, however, proved to be beyond the capabilities of the West Indies batsmen, as they failed miserably to develop any level of consistent momentum in their response. Falling short in the end by the substantial margin of 31 runs.

It is with the West Indies batting, therefore, that the cited many discouraging negative series takeaways can now be said to have been centred. Contemporary T20I format cricket dictates first strike scores of 180+ as a bare minimum requirement for more often than not favourable results. That the West Indies failed to reach even 150 in both of their Aussie Series batting efforts, while setting a total in the first and chasing their opponents’ set 179-run victory target in the second, spoke volumes of the World Cup readiness of their batting.

Following the Jamaica’s Tallawah’s somewhat unexpected triumph in winning this year’s Hero CPL Final, their Assistant Head Coach Sir Curtly Ambrose spoke about the team’s firmly established batting plans, the efficient execution of which had been fundamental to their eventual success. The Tallawah’s three-part formula was brilliant both in its simplicity, as well as its desired results-producing capabilities.

Part 1 was to place more emphasis on not losing any more than two wickets within the first six overs Power Play, rather than being overly concerned about the runs actually scored. Part 2 was to carefully navigate the middle (7-14) overs by scoring at a run a ball while not losing any more than two or three additional wickets. With such a foundation established and half of the batting still available, the formula for Part 3 was to then unleash mayhem within the remaining five overs by scoring at a targeted minimum rate of 10-15 runs per over.

There was never any indication of the West Indies batting having, let alone following, any sort of similar plan during either of their two Aussie series crease outings. They did succeed in limiting the loss of wickets to just two within the first Power Plays of both matches, but that was as far as it got. The middle 7-14 overs batting in both matches was an absolute mess, characterized as it was by unacceptably high numbers of dot balls faced, wickets constantly falling as well as some dubious team batting lineup decisions.

For starters, the unexplained absence of Evin Lewis, the West Indies’ most experienced and successful T20I opener, from both matches was highly questionable. So too was the decision to send Raymon Reifer at number four in the first T20I, ahead of either skipper Pooran, vice-captain Rovman Powell or for that matter even the former captain Jason Holder. Coming in at the loss of King’s wicket and with the score on 48/2-5.4 overs, Reifer fashioned a painstaking 23-ball 19 that completely deprived the innings of the run-a-ball restoration momentum that was required at that stage. By the time he was finally dismissed at 88-5 at the start of the 15th over (14.1), only a further 40 runs had been added in the course of the 10 very important overs in the middle of the innings.

The decision to send Reifer in at that particular stage of the match also represented a complete non-observance by the West Indies Phil Simmons’ headed coaching staff of the cardinal T20I success rule of having your best batsmen face the most overs. There was at least one more tactical decision made along similar lines that was just as questionable by Simmons et al.

In the first T20I, Odean Smith batting at number 8 had produced a belligerent 17-ball 27 that included three fours and one six and which had been scored at a strike rate of 158.82. Smith’s outstanding innings only ended when he was unfortunately run out attempting a second run. Fast forward to the second T20I and with the West Indies’ response to Australia’s posted 178/7 stuttering at 92/5-12.5 overs, following the loss of Jason Holder’s wicket, the decision was made by Simmons et al to send in Akeal Hosein ahead of Smith. Hosein did eventually produce a commendable 19-ball cameo innings of 25, but the strike rate for his innings was only 131.57. That much lower than Smith’s in the first match and decidedly inferior to what was required at that stage of the match with the West Indies still needing a further 87 runs for victory from only 7.1 available overs.

There were also some highly questionable decisions made in terms of the bowling. The decision not to play Hosein, one of the West Indies’ most successful bowlers both in terms of his demonstrated wicket-taking and miserly economy rates, in the first match was baffling. As was the decision to continue using Kyle Mayers as an opening bowler after his disastrous first-match attempt at doing so.

Mayers’ opening over in the first match went for 11 runs, which would later prove to be most telling with Australia winning in the very last over by three wickets and with just one ball to spare. With the provided lesson seemingly not having been learnt, Mayers was again used as the opening bowler in the second match. His two overs proved to be just as expensive, yielding 19 as they did.

The West Indies will have played two official warm-up matches against the United Arab Emirates and Holland on October 9 and 12 respectively before their 2022 T20 World Cup campaign officially gets underway against Scotland on the 17th. Hopefully, by that time all of the still obvious deficiencies in their World Cup participation readiness will have been satisfactorily sorted out.

About The Writer: Guyana-born, Toronto-based, Tony McWatt is the Publisher of both the WI Wickets and Wickets/monthly online cricket magazines that are respectively targeted toward Caribbean and Canadian readers. He is also the only son of the former Guyana and West Indies wicket-keeper batsman the late Clifford “Baby Boy” McWatt.