West Indies’ Dominating Victory over USA as Chase and Hope Shine in T20 World Cup
West Indies vs United States of America (USA) ICC T20 World Cup Super Eight Showdown: The USA competed well against strong opponents for a large portion of the T20 World Cup 2024, but the West Indies were superior in this match.
After a dominant performance against the USA, West Indies’ net run rate now stands well ahead of South Africa’s and England’s in their Super Eight group.
United States of America 128 (Gous 29, Chase 3-19, Russell 3-31) lost to West Indies 130 for 1 (82*) by nine wickets.
The USA hasn’t looked out of place against any team for the most of the T20 World Cup 2024, but the West Indies were unmatched against them. The bowlers, led by Roston Chase, produced a masterful display of bowling, but the chase was as vicious as a sledgehammer. With Nicholas Pooran’s assistance, Shai Hope finished the game with 55 balls and nine wickets remaining after scoring an undefeated 82 off 39 balls and hammering eight sixes along the way.
By the conclusion, the match appeared to be the first genuine mismatch in which the USA had lost because they had run out of bowling strategies against Hope, who had only participated in one match throughout the competition. He would become the fastest player in West Indies T20 World Cup history to reach his half-century in just 26 balls, and he didn’t pick up speed until Jonathan Charles was out. As the game sped to an early conclusion, Pooran and Hope let loose with a barrage of blows, destroying the final 53 runs in just 14 deliveries.
Still, Chase’s devious old hand led a methodical bowling effort that set up the game. Chase, by no means the most attractive spinner in the West Indies, was not even given the opportunity to bat against England in the previous match. But with a dominant performance that tore through the USA’s middle order and broke the back of the innings, he demonstrated his all-around value.
With his usual role up front, Akeal Hosein had kept the USA in check during the powerplay, and Andre Russell’s three wickets had allowed the hosts to keep stifling the USA anytime they attempted to form a partnership. The additional bounce that Alzarri Joseph produced to reject Andries Gous just as he was about to get into full speed proved to be the game-ending moment for the USA, who were never really competitive after that. Conversely, the West Indies have returned with a bang.
Though it seems like a long time ago, Gous, who is currently the second-highest scorer in this tournament, briefly gave the impression that West Indies were losing the game during the second half of the powerplay in the first innings.
West Indies were on the rampage halfway through, having given up just 13 in the opening three overs. However, Gous, who almost sent the USA home against South Africa with an undefeated 80 off 47, came flying into action again, smashing Joseph’s long deliveries to help steal 35 from the last three powerplay wickets.
It enabled the United States to score 48 in the opening six, their second-highest powerplay total in the World Cup. But the USA needed Gous to continue as he did in the last game because a lot of the middle order has been misfiring since their early couple of wins. Thus, following a brilliant 16-ball 29, when he holed out off Joseph, problems began to arise for the co-hosts.
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Because they were chasing net run rate as much as points in Barbados, West Indies prevented USA from scoring a lot of runs and dominating the game. After Joseph removed Gous from the way, Chase and Gudakesh Motie were free to run circles around the remaining people. Nitish Kumar got a little more turn, but after that, it was all Chase.
Even though Aaron Jones had just hit a 101-meter six, Chase nevertheless daringly lofted the opening ball of the spell up to him on the stumps. Although Jones missed and Chase easily dismissed him, the real damage to the USA came from the two strikes in his third over.
After getting trapped on the back pad squarely in front, Corey Anderson resumed his frantic run with the bat. He then slowed the next one right up, tricking Harmeet Singh into lobbing it up to point. Chase wisely gave up in one four-over spell, and his 3 for 19 numbers did not do him any favours.
Hope was supposed to be in the West Indies starting lineup from the beginning. Rather, Brandon King’s injury opened the door for him to enter, so it seems even more confusing to leave him out of the picture now. He ensured West Indies got ahead of the rate early by lighting up his home field with a spectacular showing. After that, the competition became a run-rate salvage job.
He unleashed a devastating display of sheer power on every bowler, and his mid-off heave cleared the rope, setting up a brilliant half-century. But Hope was far from out of the picture; in fact, he took it a step further, hitting the unfortunate Milind Kumar for three straight sixes in the ninth over to set up the West Indies for the kind of run-rate-boosting victory they so needed.
