Australia beat West Indies by 15 runs
FE Desk | Thursday, 6 June 2019
Australia beat West Indies by 15 runs in the 10th match of the ICC Cricket World Cup at Nottingham on Thursday.
Bowler Starc turned this chase haywire for West Indies by clinching five wickets. Australia leaked a series of boundaries at the end, but it mattered little.
SD Hope topscored with 68, followed by Holder scoring 51 and Pooran 40.
This match was one of the best of the tournament so far, see-sawing back and forth almost from beginning to end. West Indies had Australia under heavy pressure in the first 20 overs but let the pressure go with some costly misses - Smith on 26 and Coulter-Nile on 61.
The umpiring in this match left a lot to be desired but West Indies were bailed out numerous times on DRS.
After being sent in to bat first, the Australians set a target of 289 for the West Indies to chase. They recovered from an early jolt as they lost four quick wickets for only 38 runs in only eight overs.
The fifth wicket fell in the 16th over with the team total at 79.
Nathan Coulter-Nile steadied the innings with his magnificent knock of 92 off just 60 balls. He was well supported by Smith who scored 73 off 103 balls.
Australia ended their innings on 288, just one over short of the allocated 50 overs, but a brilliant fightback nonetheless was led by Smith and Coulter-Nile.
West Indies paid for some inconsistent fielding though. Smith arguably should have been caught at deep fine leg on 26 but Cottrell misjudged the chance and Coulter-Nile was also grassed on a much simpler effort by Hetmyer on 61 at deep midwicket.
The wides were also costly too, releasing the pressure after West Indies had Australia under the pump.
In spite of that earlier misjudged chance by Cottrell, he made up for it later with this stunner to finally claim Smith at deep fine leg. It came after Smith and Alex Carey initially led Australia's fightback to dig out of a major hole at 79 for 5.