Australia vs. West Indies
2nd One-Day International
Venue: Sydney Cricket Ground
Toss: West Indies won the toss and bowled
Scorecard: Windies Match Center
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia – Gudakesh Motie produced a magical spell of 3-28 in his allotted 10 overs, to restrict Australia to a gettable total of 258-9 after captain Shai Hope won the toss and decided to bowl first in the second ODI. Keacy Carty top scored again for the visitors, with 40 (51 balls), but it didn’t prove enough to get the Men in Maroon over the line. Australia won by 83 runs, clinching the series by achieving an unassailable 2-0 lead ahead of the third ODI in Canberra on Tuesday.
Alzarri Joseph (2-74) picked up an opener in each of his first two overs, making early inroads into the Australian batting line-up. However, they were able to rebuild with a few notable partnerships throughout their innings, with the largest being 57 runs between Sean Abbott (69 from 63) and Will Sutherland (18 from 33). Abbott and Matt Short (41 from 55) were the standout batters for Australia. Romario Shepherd (2-50) also picked up 2 wickets, with Matthew Forde (1-32) and Oshane Thomas (1-33) picking up one apiece.
The West Indies had a shaky start to the chase, losing 3 wickets in the powerplay, before a 53-run partnership between Shai Hope (29 from 65) and Carty for the 4th wicket. Roston Chase (25 from 41) entered the wicket after Hope was bowled by Josh Hazlewood (3-43) and showed some resilience, but the visitors could not get over the line, eventually ending up all out after 43.3 overs. Sean Abbott, in a player of the match performance, underscored his batting exploits by also picking up 3-40 with the ball. Will Sutherland was the other standout bowler for Australia, with figures of 2-28 on debut.
Speaking to the media after the match, vice-captain Alzarri Joseph said,
“We would have loved to keep them to something below that (250 runs), but I think 250 on this wicket should have been chasable.”
He continued,
“As I said, I think they got a bit too much, but at the end of the day if you told yourself before the 50 overs that you were going to get Australia out for 250, you would be happy with that.”
The third and final ODI will be played on Tuesday, February 6 at the Manuka Oval in Canberra, beginning at 2:30 pm local time. While the series is already lost, the West Indies will be eager to take a consolidatory win, especially considering the importance of improving their ranking to qualify for the next ODI World Cup in 2027. A win could also mean going into the upcoming T20I series with some momentum with a home T20 World Cup coming up in a few months.
–CWI [https://www.windiescricket.com/news/]
