USA vs WI: West Indies keep semis hopes alive after dominating win over United States
West Indies have kept alive their hopes of making their way through to the semi-final of the T20 World Cup 2024 after beating the United States by 9 wickets.
In the Super 8 match on Saturday, June 22. With the win, Rovman Powell and Co. also improved their net run to +1.814 from once being at -1.343. The Caribbean team now need to beat South Africa to have any chance of making it through to the next round. But if England beat USA by a specific margin, West Indies might be knocked out of the competition.
After being asked to bat first, USA could never up the ante as they were bowled out for 128 in 19.5 overs. Nitish Kumar and Andries Gous put on 48 runs for the second wicket, but apart from that, the USA batters struggled. Gous, USA’s top batter in the tournament, scored 29 runs off 16 balls before Alzarri Joseph accounted for his wicket.
Roston Chase was the pick of the West Indies bowlers after he picked up the wickets of Aaron Jones, Corey Anderson and Harmeet Singh to finish with figures of 4-0-19-3. Andre Russell also accounted for 3 crucial scalps. Obed McCoy, who replaced Romario Shepherd, leaked 20 runs in 2 overs.
Shai Hope plays a blinder
West Indies were a tad cautious to start with in their first 2 overs, but once they started accelerating, they became unstoppable and chased down the target in 10.5 overs. Shai Hope, who came in place of an injured Brandon King, racked up his half-century off 26 balls. The opener played his shots right from the word go and stayed not out on 82 runs off 39 balls with the help of 4 fours and 8 sixes.
Johnson Charles missed out after he scored 15 runs before Harmeet Singh dismissed him. Nicholas Pooran scored an unbeaten 27 off 12 balls with a four and 3 sixes. Hope and Pooran stitched together a partnership of 66 runs off 23 deliveries.
As far as the USA are concerned, they still have a glimmer of a hope to advance to the semis, but they need to beat England by a huge margin to finish in the top 2.