The sightscreen was punched, the trees were shaken, the crowd ran for cover, and the ball was lost. All this happened multiple times in Bready, as West Indies crashed 20 sixes on their way to 256 for 5, their second-highest total in the format. This despite scoring only 11 runs in their first two overs.
Evin Lewis (91 off 44 balls), Shai Hope (51 from 27), and debutant Keacy Carty (49* off 22) led the way for West Indies, who beat Ireland by 62 runs to win the three-match series 1-0 after the first two games were washed out.
Only twice before in the history of all T20 cricket had a higher total been successfully chased down, and despite a bright start, Ireland’s chase lost steam in the face of required-rate pressure.
Paul Stirling hit the first three balls of Ireland’s innings for boundaries, and Ross Adair and Harry Tector added 101 for the second wicket. But Tector’s wicket in the 11th over sparked a collapse of 3 for 2, and Ireland faded away. Akeal Hosein recovered brilliantly from Stirling’s early assault to finish with 3 for 27 from his four overs.
After West Indies were sent in, openers Lewis and Hope laid the perfect platform to push for a massive total. They smashed 70 in the powerplay, and of those six overs, left-arm spinner Matthew Humphreys’ two only went for seven runs.
Humphreys bowled the first and the last overs of the powerplay, and in between, Lewis and Hope slapped Mark Adair, Barry McCarthy and debutant Liam McCarthy for six fours and five sixes.
Both batters reached their half-centuries with sixes. While Lewis got to the landmark off 29 balls when he heaved Liam over deep square leg, Hope took only 24, launching Ben White down the ground.
Barry broke the opening stand at 122 when he had Hope caught at long-on in the 11th over. Rovman Powell and Lewis followed soon after, as West Indies lost 3 for 30 in 11 balls. But there was no let-up in the scoring, as Carty carted four fours and four sixes in 22 balls, while Shimron Hetmyer, Jason Holder and Romario Shepherd provided sharp cameos. Of West Indies’ total of 256, 200 runs came in boundaries.
Liam conceded 81 in his four overs, the most by a debutant in T20Is. Humphreys, on the other hand, stood out with figures of 2 for 16 in four overs. They could have been even better, if Tector had held on to a simple chance at deep cover in the eighth over, when Lewis was on 44. That miss ended up proving costly. Although he missed out on what would have been his third T20I hundred, he built the base for a comprehensive win. (ESPNcricinfo)
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