Mitch Owen has dazzled on his international debut with a power-hitting masterclass that helped rescue Australia on the way to a three-wicket victory over the West Indies. With Australia using the five-match series in the Caribbean as an opportunity to test the next generation and build depth for the longer term, Owen wasted no time in showing that he could be part of the future with a gamechanging half-century.
Australia still had to call on the more experienced Ben Dwarshuis and Sean Abbott to guide them home at the death, as the tourists reached 190 to win with seven balls to spare in the first T20I at Sabina Park.
West Indies made a blazing before being restricted to 189-8, but the target was soon looking much more ominous when Owen replaced Glenn Maxwell at the crease with Australia four down and needing another 112 runs. But in perhaps the first sign of a passing of the baton, Owen looked comfortable facing both the West Indies pacers and spinners, and clubbed six stunning sixes to reach 50 from 26 balls.
The 23-year-old was caught on the boundary from the next ball after raising his bat, but by then Australia were back in control and only needed 15 more runs. Cameron Green was just as critical to rebuilding the Australia innings as he carried over his reasonable form from the Test series with 51 runs from 26 balls that included five sixes and two boundaries.
West Indies were left to wonder what could have been after getting off to a flyer with half-centuries to captain Shai Hope and Roston Chase taking them to 159 for two in the 16th over. When Hope lofted a slower ball from debutant Owen to point when on 55, and with Chase already back in the pavilion, the hosts soon looked shaky after a target beyond 200 had seemed much more likely. The collapse that followed might not have been to the depths of the recent red-ball horror show, but losing six wickets for a scarily familiar 27 runs allowed Australia to chase an achievable target.
This was the first of Australia’s 16 T20 internationals over the next four months as they seek answers to their questionable form in the shortest format ahead of the T20 World Cup early next year. Greater depth, power-hitting options and flexibility within games are among the more obvious concerns as white-ball specialists and emerging players were handed an opportunity to impress at Sabina Park. Green and Josh Inglis were the only survivors from the 13 players used to claim a 3-0 Test series sweep, while the West Indies could take some early relief from Australia resting all of their formidable red-ball attack.
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With Dwarshuis and Abbott posing fewer problems with the new ball, Brandon King returned to the top of the order in place of the injured Evin Lewis and set out to ensure that the West Indies left the third Test humiliation behind them. King was one of seven batters to be dismissed for a duck in a fourth-innings total of 27 last week, but back in his preferred format the opener clattered four boundaries from the first two overs of the game. When King stepped down the pitch once too often and was stumped for 18, Chase came to the crease and took little time to blast Australia’s spinners out of the attack.
The all-rounder made next to no impact with his own off-breaks in the three-Test series but looked like a different player with the bat as he smashed his fastest T20I half-century. Chase reached 60 from 32 balls with a pair of sixes and nine boundaries before becoming the first of Dwarshuis’s four victims when picking out Maxwell just inside the rope at long-on.
Hope moved through the gears to keep the run-rate above 10 an over with Shimron Hetmyer (38 from 19) lending valuable support. But when Owen made his first critical intervention to dismiss the skipper, the West Indies crumbled and Dwarshuis soon claimed three lower-order wickets in an over as the hosts’ dream of a hint of redemption was gradually lost.